32 



THE MUSKRAT. 



Until recently the price of muskrat fur has not been high enough 

 to warrant expenditures on ])reserves, or even efforts to prevent poach- 

 ing. AVith present conditions, carefully guarded preserves will yield 

 steady and profitable returns. All that is needed is care not to deplete 

 the fur sup2)ly by too close trapping. 



Some Examples. 



Muskrat farming is already a prosperous business. The Cedar 

 Point Hunting Club, of Toledo, Ohio, controls 5,000 acres of marsh at 

 the mouth of the Maumee River, near Lake Erie. In the Avinter of 

 1903-4, after the muskrats had been undisturbed for two years, they 

 were trai)ped for the benefit of the club. Five thousand were taken 

 in a single month (January, IDO-t), and the skins were sold for 25 

 cents each. The carcasses also were sold at a dollar a dozen.'^ 



The muskrat industry has probably reached its highest present de- 

 velopment on the eastern shore of Mar3dand. The extensive marshes 

 of Dorchester County are a center of muskrat fur production, and the 

 writer recently visited that section to learn about this industry. 



Formerly the owners of marshes in this vicinity paid little at- 

 tention to them. The land was considered useless because subject to 

 tidal overflow. Trappers w^ere allowed to take muskrats wherever 

 they chose, and a dozen years ago much of the marsh land could 

 have been bought for less than 50 cents an acre. At the present time 

 some of the marshes are worth more, measured by the actual income 

 from them, than cultivated farms of like acreage in the same vicinity. 

 The increased values are due to the muskrat. Landowners now^ usu- 

 ally lease the trapping privilege, and trappers and owners unite to 

 protect the marshes from poaching. The owner receives half the fur 

 caught, while the trapper gets the other half and all he can realize 

 from the sale of the meat. In the short season of seventy-four days, 

 January 1 to March 15, during the last two years, trappers have easily 

 made from $400 to $900 each. 



A few^ specific examples will give a better idea of the value of 

 these marsh lands. The owner of one tract of marsh informed the 

 writer that he bought it three or four years ago for $2,700. It is 

 leased for half the fur, and yielded him in 1909 $890, or about 33 

 per cent on the investment. The owner of a small piece of marsh — 

 about 10 acres — bought it in 1905 for $150. Leased for half the fur, 

 it has yielded the owner $30, $00, $70, and $100, respectively, for 

 each of the four years, 1906 to 1909. Taxes are very light, and on 

 the basis of a 6 per cent income the returns for 1909 would represent 

 an approximate value of nearly $40 an acre for this land. The 



396 



a Fur Trade Review, p. 96, February, 1904. 



