THE MUSKRAT. 



33 



owner of a 1,300-acre tract of marsh trapped it this season, with the 

 aid of his sons, and secured over 5,000 muskrats, which were sold for 

 $2,300. 



The furs sold in this region are seldom assorted before sale. They 

 are separated into black and brown and then counted, a deduction of 

 from 3 to 5 per cent being made for " kitts." The skins sold through- 

 out the present season at Baltimore prices, 35 cents for brown and 45 

 cents for black. The proportion of black skins varies on the different 

 marshes from 10 to 60 per cent, the average being about 40 per cent. 



The muskrat meat is an additional source of income to the trapper. 

 It is bought by local buyers, who during the season 1909 paid only 

 4 cents for each animal ; it is shipped to outside markets or sold for 

 local consumption. The demand for the meat is growing, and all of 

 it is utilized. The Baltimore market takes about 30,000 animals 

 during a season, the bulk of which come from Dorchester County. 



The editor of the Cambridge Eecord, a local newspaper, stated 

 that the muskrat industry of Dorchester brings into the county 

 about $100,000 annually. This would indicate that about a quarter 

 million of the animals are trapped each season. The danger of ex- 

 hausting the supply by continued close trapping has been discussed 

 in Dorchester County, but trappers maintain that with the long 

 closed season, March 15 to January 1, little ground for anxiety on 

 this score exists. 



Possibilities of the Business. 



Muskrats require no feeding, since the plant life of ponds and 

 marshes furnishes abundance of food. In many States the areas 

 adapted to the muskrat are extensive, and doubtless the animals 

 could be profitably introduced into sections from which they are now 

 absent. As trapping is done in winter, the business of muskrat 

 farming is peculiarly adapted to farmers and farmers' boys. 



The improvement of the muskrat's pelage by selective breeding 

 has never been attempted. Probably the black muskrat could be 

 bred true to color and greatly improved in the localities it now in- 

 habits, and could be successfully introduced into other sections of 

 the country. Indeed, to make the most of the muskrat industry 

 requires that the possibilities of selective breeding be tested. 



THE MUSKRAT AS A PEST. 



Its destructive habits make the muskrat a pest in comparatively 

 few places. On the whole, and especially in large marshes and unin- 

 habited sections, its economic value far outweighs the harm it does. 

 On many of the streams it inhabits, no attempts have been made to 



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