58 BULLETIN 1151, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
RECORDS. 
On every ranch handling pure-bred foxes it is essential to keep 
some definite system of records. These should include not only 
histories of individual foxes but accurate and complete entries of 
business transactions, in order to ascertain definitely at stated periods 
the assets, liabilities, and net worth of the business, the cost of pro 
duction, and the profits. 
The caretaker should jot down in a notebook memoranda regard 
ing foxes, matings, breeding, whelping, happenings on the ranch, 
buying and selling transactions, etc., and these entries should be 
transferred at frequent intervals to a permanent record, such as a 
card-index file, consisting of one card for each individual fox. In- 
stead of a card index some ranchers use a large sheet of paper show- 
ing a diagram of the ranch, and indicate on it the foxes in each pen 
and the number of pups whelped. As a separate sheet is used for 
each year, in time this type of record becomes unwieldy. 
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Fig. 45. — Live-fox exhibit. The chief value of a fox show is in its educational features — 
standards' of excellence being thus publicly demonstrated. 
The advantages of a card system are obvious. When selections 
are being made for mating the caretaker is not dependent upon his 
memory, but has at hand definite records concerning the ancestry of 
each individual, including the good and bad characteristics of the 
strain. The card-index system of fox records is compact, always 
up to date — cards for foxes no longer on the ranch being easily filed 
elsewhere, with reason shown — and there is ample space for a sys- 
tematic history of each individual fox. 
Various systems have been advocated for the identification of foxes 
in order to prevent errors in records and facts regarding individuals. 
Some breeders have used ear tags marked with different numbers, 
but these tear out easily and are lost. Tattooing the ear has given 
as satisfactory results as any, but no method free from defects has 
yet been devised. The most practical method is to number the pens 
(see figs. 17 and 41) and then fasten to the pen a metal tag bearing 
the number of the occupant. When the fox is transferred to another 
pen a corresponding change is made in the tag. 
