7 



Since the animals are essentially alike in habits and in all respects 

 except color, it is evident that silver foxes can be bred as easily as 

 red ones and at a much greater profit, provided they breed true to 

 color. Therefore, although some attention has been given to raising- 

 red and cross foxes, efforts to breed the more valuable silvers have 

 been more persistent. 



HISTORY OF SILVER FOX BREEDING. 



Foxes, especially red foxes, have been kept alive in zoological col- 

 lections and by private individuals since early historic times. Owing 

 to the value of its fur, however, the silver fox seldom has been con- 

 fined longer than necessary for it to attain marketable condition. The 

 persons most likely to obtain the live animals have been farmers and 

 woodsmen, to whom immediate returns were of such importance that 

 few cared to risk experimentation for the sake of future profits. Only 

 in recent years and in most cases only after experience with the less 

 valuable red foxes have serious attempts been made to raise silver 

 foxes. Of some twenty parties known to have engaged in breeding 

 them, one began fifteen years ago and another eight years ago, while 

 all the others undertook the business within the last five years. Those 

 .who have persevered in spite of early failures have in the end attained 

 considerable success. Some have become discouraged and have dis- 

 continued after a few years, while others are now just beginning and 

 their experience is too slight to be of much value in determining the 

 practicability of the business. Most of them are men of small means 

 living in sparsely settled regions. Their original stock has been 

 obtained chiefly by taking the young from the dens of wild foxes. In 

 some cases small stock companies have been formed and considerable 

 sums of money invested in land, equipment, and breeding stock. For 

 reasons explained later (p. 18), most of these companies have failed. 



Thus far, the breeding of silver foxes has been carried on chiefly in 

 the State of Maine and in the Canadian Maritime Provinces — New 

 Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. It has been 

 undertaken to some extent also in Michigan, Alaska, Labrador, and 

 Newfoundland. 



AREA SUITED FOR FOX FARMING. 



The natural habitat of red, cross, and silver foxes includes the 

 greater part of northern North America, from the central United 

 States northward to and including the border of the treeless tundra. 

 The red phase inhabits nearly all this region, but the silver phase, 

 although known from most parts of it, is very irregularly distributed. 

 In general it is much more common in northern localities than in 

 southern, but many parts of the north where red foxes are abundant 

 produce silvers only rarely. From the reports of wholesale fur 



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