0OT. 22, 189X.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



271 



FUR BREEDING. 



A NEW CH^OE E-OR SMaLL CAPITAL. 



I KNOW its as old as the hills, and t say so to get ahead 

 of the critics, but all the same ii's new. 

 I want to know why it is not taken up by some of your 

 numerous correspondents who write fo jou every little 

 while to know if there is any money in i'rug raising or 

 gander farming. 



Three inquirers are nearly always persona with a strong 

 taste for natural history pursuits, rei-idents of the coun- 

 try, and have a little land avd fpare capital; and to ihese 

 I would say, why not try fur breeding, Good furs are 

 always saleable, always fashionable and always beauti- 

 ful, and I think that a person with suitable surrounding'^ 

 and experience could make a fair percpntage on a small 

 capital, especially if he added skillful tanning to his 

 operations. 



It seems quite essential that the animal experimented 

 with should nave a valuable fur, should be prolific, easily 

 managed in confinement and quick to mature. 



The most valuable furs then, would naturally claim 

 first attention; but the best of these— black fox, "beavfr, 

 otter, fisher, etc. — are from animals that are non-breeders 

 in confinement, or are very unprolific or otherwise un- 

 manageable. 



Of a lower grade of value are marten, skunk and mink. 

 Marten is always valuable, and is said to be fairly prc l fic 

 in a wild state; but as a semi-domestic animal I know noth- 

 inK of it. Skunks are quite manageable in large inclos- 

 ures, while mink are, as is well known, as easily managed 

 as rabbits and are fairly prolific; so that when the fur is 

 valuable there is good money in it. 



In the third grade of furs we may place the common 

 cat and rabbit. Although both are staple-! in the fur 

 trade, I never heard of any attempts being mide to im- 

 prove them by breeding for fur; that is, by careful selec- 

 tion and management with a view to fur only. In this 

 connection it might be well to note the following: facts : 



1. The fur is more readily changed by breeding than 

 any other part of the animal. 



3. Furs vary in value immensely, according to indi- 

 vidual quality. Thus a fine dark mmk may be worth a 

 dozen poor light ones. 



3. Furs are greatly improved by exposing the animal 

 to cold weather and supplying with abundance of proper 

 food. 



4. The size always and the quality often, of furs is 

 greatly improved by castrating: the males, which should, 

 of course, be set aside for the market. 



If I were to experiment myself I should make some 

 very large cages and try the marten, mink, pkunk and 

 common cat, aiming to produce a large, very dark or all 

 black animal in the first three, and in the last named a 

 glossy gray, a richly spotted black and yellow or an imi- 

 tation of lynx; with cats, however, the color p issibilities 

 are unlimited, so that one can in time have anything that 

 may be fancied. 



All these animals, unfortunately, are carnivorous, 

 which is an objection, unless the breeder has a fish pond 

 and abundant opportunity of getting and keeping ott'al. 



A herbivore would be much more eas ly fed, and this 

 consideration brings up the names of the chinchilla of 

 South America and perhaps the little bettonga or mouti- 

 tain kangaroo. Both are said to be very prolific and 

 both are apparently easy to manage in a cage. Experi- 

 ments have been made with crosses between coyotes and 

 dogs, also, as is well known, between buffulos and com- 

 mon cattle, but with what degree of financial fcuccess I 

 cannot say. 



This is more a letter of queries than it appears to be. 

 At the same lime I must say that in view of the rapid 

 disappearance of our wild animals I believe that the 

 question of fur breeding will in the near future become a 

 very practical one. Ernkst E. Tuoivipson. 



OHIO DEER HUNTERS. 



CAMP STEDMAN, Alger County, M ch,, Oct. 18.— 

 We have had a good Sunday dinner incur cabin on 

 the little lake — pheasant potpie, "baked pike and stewed 

 venison— and now, while enjoying our pipe-', will tell 

 Forest and Strea.m readerri about the huniing and fish- 

 ing. Our party of four— Byron Stedman, Aichie Mays, 

 Charles W. Sander and Ljuis R. G-roneweg— are from 

 Dayton, O., and we come to chese glorious pine regions 

 every fall for a month's deer hunt. The first afternoon 

 in the woods we jumped a three prong buclr, and Seed- 

 man shot him dead, and to dite we have kided ten deer. 



The Powell Brothers, of Powell's Point, Mich., well 

 known market-hunters, are in camp near us, and have 

 killed forty-one deer. They ship the saddles to Detroit, 

 and leave the forequarters hanging in the woods. What 

 a pity to waste so much good meat ! This is the result of 

 the new game law, making the open season for d< er so 

 early. Half the venison that is killed thus early is 

 spoiled by warm weather. 



A party of hunters from Troy, O., in camp near us 

 here, killed a number of deer. Tney also killed a gray 

 timber wolf and took the scalp to Au Train and received 

 $18 bounty from the county officials. Ttie county pays 

 that bounty for every wolf killed. The "loaferc," as 

 these wolves ai"e called here, are getting scarce, and it's 

 a good thing, for these wolves have heretofore killed 

 more deer each winter than the hunters. 



We have a canvas boat, and yesterdav we took it to a 

 small lake that has never been fished. We otught a boat- 

 load of fine grass pike, many of them over two feet long, 

 and we now have a live-box full in the lake at camp, and 

 can have a fish fry whenever we want, and plenty to sup- 

 ply our neighbor camps. The woods are fuU of pheasant. 

 We intend to hunt deer until the law is out, October aS, 

 then turn our attention to the pheasant. 



Fine Squiebel, 



DAtTON, 0.,Oct. 19.^ A second party of deer hunters 

 will leave here next week to oamp a mxonth in the pine 

 lands of Wisconsin, south of Ash/and. The party will 

 consist of Charlea Wheeler, Ed. tichwind, Joseph Manter, 

 Gustav Smder, Philip Kern and Michael Sohwind, and 

 their colored cook. Tfaey have three b?g tents and all 

 other necessary camp equipage, and will take with them 

 provisions and ammumiion to remain until the last of 

 November. ^ 



Bird shooters in vicinity of this city are patiently wait- 

 ing for the quail season to open, although every day now 

 sotne are in the marshes for woodcock and snipe. " - -' - 



are coming in, and the woodcock are reasonably plenty, 

 fat, and fine shootin?, There are but few wild ducks 

 along the rivers. Teal did put in an appearance in 

 September, but mild weather sent them back "to the lakes 

 again. 



Quail have been abundant for the past three years, and 

 are more abundant now than ever. The coveys are very 

 large, and ihe birds all full grown and not wild. R-)- 

 ports come in of coveys feeding through the villages, and 

 one or two C'^'Vt^vs have scattered through the center of 

 this city of 65,000 inhabitants. A novelty is hearins: quail 

 whistling from the tops of four-story houses in Dayton. 

 Piieasant shooting has been fine sport to a few of the 

 hunters who took the fi^ld in Darke and Mercer counties. 

 Cold, frosty weather will be welcomed by the hunters and 

 dogs. Brown, 



ADIRONDACK DEER. 



NUMBER FOUR, Oct. 10.— RdUor Forest and Stream: 

 The slaughter of deer the present open season for 

 hounding bids fair to rival that of any preceding year, 

 Since the opening day the woods have been full of pot' 

 hunters. Every stream, lake and pond has its watchers, 

 Bucks, does and fawns are butchered in the water indis- 

 criminately. Tiie towns on tbe borders of the woods are 

 kept supplied with venieon. A number of deer are taken 

 to town, each accompanied by a himter who claims to 

 own one deer, and when the load of putrid venison is dis- 

 pos(d of they 3 etarn to the woods, kill and take out an- 

 other load, and will continue to do so to the close of the 

 season. No attention is paid to the law limiting the kill- 

 ing to three. 



A hotel proprietor in the town where the game con- 

 stable resides told me the other day that he had just re- 

 turned from Long Pond, and says that over seventy deer 

 have been killed in that pond since the open season for 

 hounding. And that one man himself had killed over 

 twenty deer. F.ve deer have been butchered in the 

 vvater here to-day. And still the slaughter will go on so 

 long as the hound can find a deer to drive into the water. 

 They will not stop Oct, 20, at least last fall hounding was 

 practiced for a week after the close season. No method 

 of hunting could be conceived more potent for the de- 

 struction of deer than by hounding them into the water. 

 The legaliz ition of killing on the deep crusted nnows of 

 winter would be protection in romparisnn. The cruel 

 jaws of the steel trap would be less revolting and more 

 sportsmanlike than this water butchery. With the 

 present game laws on our statute book the only chance 

 for the continuance of deer in the Adirondacks lies in the 

 hope that it may pass into the hands of private Individ 

 uals or clubs who will regulate the killing to the increase. 

 It is to be regrettf d that the late purchase of Dr. Webb, 

 of the central portion of the Adirondack wilderness, d 'cs 

 not comprise a larger area, as he ses ms to understand the 

 first principle of deer protection. No hounding of deer 

 will be permitted, and dogs that wdl fullow a deer are 

 rigorously excluded from the grounds. I am glad that 

 Dr. Webo has made his premises an asylum for the much 

 persecuted deer^ Musset. 



TOPEKA NOTES, 



TOPEKA, Kan., Oct 16,-1 see deFcriptionsof the mag- 

 nificent wildfowl preserves of Eastern gun club-^ 

 and of the work that is being done to pre.'^erve the wild 

 game, but I fail to see anything that would indicate that 

 here is any man west of the Mississippi. River who 

 knows a jack snipe from a mallard or could, excejit in 

 self defense, kill a bird of any description. More than 

 thi*, we know of at least two men who can distinguish a 

 teal from a sandhill crane. So to inform the general 

 public that we are alive I am going to give one or two 

 :. terns of what may be news to some. 



The West Si<)e Gun Club, of Topeka, has just leased a 

 small lake, known as Lake View, about 30 miles east of 

 here and will put up a club house and make other im- 

 ]3rovemer.tp. The lake is a stopping place for every 

 flight of ducks that goes over eastt-rn Kansas, and great 

 numbers of teil and woodduck breed there. Jack snipe 

 are thicfc in the marshes surrounding one end of the 

 lake. Black hats abound and, as the lake is on the line 

 of the SiUta Fe and there is a eta'ion there, I see no 

 reason why the lease should not prove one of the best in 

 the country. 



Five of the Topeka boys went down to McPherson 

 county a few days ago duck hunting. Yesterday they 

 wired, "Come down and bring a club. Gun unneces- 

 sary." 



There is a rumor that the Kansas Citv people who got 

 beaten in the struggle for Lake, View have leased a marsh 

 near St. Mary's, 25 miles west of here on the Union 

 Pacific. It is to he hoped that the rumor is true, as the 

 place is a good one for duck and snipe and is located in 

 a good quail country. If they will k^ ep pot-hunters off 

 the place will be a good breeding ground in a few years. 



F. E. 



ordinary gunner using reoog^ahsed methods for this kind 

 of game. It seems to me that there is about as much 

 genuine sport in pursuing ducks with steam launohes and 

 4-bore guns a^ there would b.9 in shooting cows in a 

 meadow, If duck butchery like this is lpga,l, its legaliza- 

 tion was got by "pulls" in politics, Westchester's repre- 

 sentatives in the State L-'^ialature ought to take step-; as 

 soon as they meet their fellows in session to stop this 

 steam launch shooting. They should be asked by name 

 in the public prints to do so, as indeed I venture to say 

 thpy will be. — W. H. MEAD. (The law as amended in 

 1887 permits the pursuit in boats on the Hudson below 

 lona Island. The guns prescribed are such "as are habit- 

 ually raised at arm's length and fired from the shoulder.'"] 



NOTES FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



Edior Forest and Stream: 



Tne fall flight of woodcock is making its appearance in 

 this vicinity. Hall Waring and myself bagged twelve 

 fine birds on Saturday. Partridge are only fairly abundant 

 and are unusually wild. We believe, however, that one 

 will experience better luck a little later when the leaves 

 are off. Quail are unusually abundant, and will afford 

 excellent shooting when the season opens. 



Charley Roberts created something of a sensation in 

 town this morning by bringing in a wildcat, weighing 

 301b-",, which he killed in the mountains back of Boston 

 Corners on Friday night while on a coon hunt. 



MiLnEETON, N. J., oot. 19. J. T. Waring, Jr. 



We are having a magnificent fall, and our ^porting 

 friends are in high glreovpr the prospects of gamer which 

 is in great quantities this year. ' G-, Van F. 



QtTEBBC, Canada^ 



DticK Shooting feoji Steam La.unc5he3.— .ffdiio/- For- 

 est and Stream: Is it permissible under the game laws 

 of New York to shoot duoks from steam launches in the 

 waters of the Hudson near Sing Sing? Would-be sports- 

 men are now engaged in this work, using therefor cannon 

 in the shape of 4-bore guns. Surely the birds will be 

 driven from that part of the river if suoh pi^actices con- 

 tinue. As it is, they pre wild beyond th^ reach of the 



Gettinc* Lost. —Patten, Me.— I have often !au!<hed to 

 see how quick orie will change from sense to nonsense- — 

 from a bright man to a pitiful demented object the 

 moment when he first realizes that is really lost. A 

 kind of frightened foolish feeling comes over him at 

 once. The right way then is to consult the heavens. 

 The sun is our best guide stars next, and clouds and the 

 wind will do. The tops of naountains, the course cf 

 brooks and lumber roads will do, but to see the sun 

 right in the north at noon looks funny and makes one 

 feel funny. I have looked right at a mountain, long be- 

 fore I was able to rccognizta it, though quite familiar 

 with it. I once came out of the woods to a neighborhood 

 in a lost condition. There stood two of my neighbors 

 whom I knew; there was the road five rods away; there 

 were the buildings ten rods away. I gazed around with- 

 out recognizing a single thing except the men, I stepped 

 up into the road, and like a flash the scene was quite 

 familiar.— D. 



A House Boat Hunt for Varmints — W. H. Peter- 

 son, cashier of the Middles-^x C )unty Bank of Perth 

 Am boy, N. J., and two of the Valentines, of Woodbridge 

 (Bob and R jss), started last Saturdiy for BHXter Springs, 

 Ark., where they are to join the Perkins brothers, form- 

 erly of Rq,hway. The party will embark aboard a house- 

 boat, 9x30ft., and float down the Neosho and the Arkansas 

 rivers as far as Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, tying up 

 here and there along the route and trying their luck with 

 the various kinds of game which is said to abound in that 

 rf gion. The expect to be back by the loch of November, 

 and calculate that -HiSOO apiece will see them through , 

 counting everything.— J. L. K. 



Sportsmen's Trophies are mounted with decided skiE 

 and taste by Thomds Rowland, of this city, whose adver- 

 tisement appears in this issue. 



Angling Talks. By George Dawson. Price 50 cen ts. Fly- 

 Rods and Fly-Taclde. By H. P. Wells. PHce $2.50. Fly- 

 Fishing and Fly- Making for Trout. By J. H. Keene. 

 Mce $1.50. American Angler's Book. By Thad, Norris. 

 Price $5.50. 



SHARKS AND THEIR WAYS. 



V17HEN Mr, Nye, of New Bedford, attempted to feed 

 V T a shark with his fingers and in const qutnce nearly 

 lost them he was acting upon a wrong theory. 



Where the story originated that a shark was obliged to 

 turn on its side or back to take its food is hard to say. 

 Like many other popular errors it has been copied by 

 one writer from anothei;, most of whom probably never 

 saw a shark, its origin being lost in the mists of antiquity. 

 Many such legends are current; that of the hoopsnake; 

 the belief that if a person is bitten by a dog and that if 

 the dog afterward runs mad, the person bitten, though it 

 be years before, goes mad also; th-^t the alligator can 

 raise its upper jaw; that the white-headed eagle is a bald- 

 headed bird. 



Truth, it is said, lies at the bottom of a well, being too 

 modest, perhaps, to appear among men. But we know 

 that error has no such semples. 



As to sharks, thp writer has taken many of them, both 

 with hand-lin^- a^id rod and reel. The dusky shark, the 

 shovel-nose, the hammer head and the nurse shark; often 

 in clear and shallow water, where the movements of the 

 fish could be seen, and he never has sren one i t either of 

 these species turn over in taking the bait, but it was taken 

 as other fishes take it. He has aLso seen large sharks, 

 man-eaters perhaps, taken at sea with hook and line, but 

 they turned no summersaults till thpy got on deck. 



There is much resemblance between the shark and the 

 wolf. Both are voraciou->, ferocious and cowardly, and 

 seldom attacking any animal capable of retit^tance, ex<^ept 

 when very hungry or when embolden* d by numbers. 

 Then they both become dangerous. In fishing for channel 

 bass on the east coast of Florida, where sharks are 

 numerous, I have sometimes had them take my bass away 

 while I was playing it; biting off a large fish with as 

 clean a cut ag an ax would make. They would sometimes 

 come round the boat in numbers so boldly that we thought 

 best to move away, but I have never been attacked. 



An old fisherman on the coast of Florida, who had been 

 in the habit of taking sharks for their oil, and had killed 

 hundreds of them, told me that he thought a shark less 

 dangerous than an alligator, by which animal he had been 

 attacked more than once, but by a shark, never. We had, 

 however, found half of a good-sized alligator in the 

 stomach of a large shark, which shows the enormous 

 power of the jaws of that fish. I asked him whether a 

 shark was obliged to turn over to seize its prey; he said, 

 he had never seen it do so. and as the shark lived mostly on 

 fish, he could not catch it in that way, but would starve 

 to death if he had to turn over. ' S. C, C. 



New York: Game and Fish Laws.— A meeting of the 

 codification committee will be held at the Fifth Avenue 

 Hotel, in this city, to day, at 11 o'clock A. M., for a con- 

 ference With Commissioners of other States and the Can 

 adi^n Provinces respecting the fish laws. The meeting 

 will be a public one. 



A Large Bluepish was taken in the latter part of Sep- 

 tember at Provinoetown, Mass. Its weight was ISlbs, 

 and its length a little more than one yard. 



