6 BULLETIN 301, U. S. DEPARTMEXT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Charlottetown by Consul Livingston T. Mays the number of domes- 
tic silver foxes on Prince Edward Island in April, 1914, was given 
as about 1,600, and in the following December as about 2,600, the 
increase for the year being approximately 66 per cent, or considerably 
below the average increase of former years. The value of the foxes 
on this island at the close of 1913, as estimated by the Commissioner 
of Agriculture, was over $15,000,000. A report of the provincial sec- 
retary, issued May 7, 1914, shows that there had been incorporated in 
the Province up to that time 196 fur-farming companies, nearly aU of 
which were devoted to fox raising, carrying an authorized capitaliza- 
tion of $24,305,700. In December, 1914, the United States consul 
on Prince Edward Island reported that the capitalization had reached 
$31,500,000. From the foregoing it is evident that anyone contem- 
plating an investment in fox farming, either directly or in the stock 
of an organized company, should first carefully consider all values in 
their relation to the actual returns possible from the average increase 
of the breeding stock. As pointed out elsewhere in this bulletin, 
prices of both live silver foxes and fox pelts are now far below prices 
paid a few years ago. The business of fox breeding will be on a much 
more stable basis than at present when the value of breeding animals 
bears an approximate relation to the value of their pelts in the open 
market. 
AREA SUITED FOR FOX FARMING. 
The natural habitat of red, cross, and silver foxes includes the 
greater part of North America, from central United States northward 
to and including the border of the treeless tundras. 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. According to reports of wholesale fur buyers, 
many silver fox skins of high quality are secured from Newfoundland, 
the height of land between Quebec and the peninsula of Labrador, 
and from the upper Yukon in Yukon Territory and the adjacent 
region of east-central Alaska. 
While pelts of all fur-bearing animals are more valuable when pro- 
duced in northern localities, furriers have learned that certain locali- 
ties are not too far south to produce valuable furs, but the conclu- 
sions they are able to form are of only very general application. 
The ordinary individual, however, is seldom able to profit by the 
experience of furriers; and, especially if he lives in a region in which 
fur-bearing animals have been exterminated, he can not judge 
whether his own locality is favorably situated for producing foxes 
with valuable pelts. Fortunately, in a general way a guide to such 
matters is furnished by maps of life zones of the United States. 
These zones are transcontinental belts, throughout which the animal 
