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JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
of fur-bearing animals will meet these same problems sooner or later, 
and success in the business depends largely on just how completely 
they are solved. A rancher must further consider that he is handling 
wild animals in captivity and not domesticated stock in the ordinary 
sense of the term. It is very true that fur bearers born in captivity 
are more docile than those from the wild, but they are not in the strict 
sense of the word fully domesticated. 
A knowledge of pelts, pelt values, and market requirements is an 
additional requisite a fur farmer should possess in order to operate 
his business intelligently. His harvest is pelts, and he should be well 
informed as to primeness and quality of fur as well as to market 
requirements. 
A number of raw-fur buyers claim that fur produced on ranches is 
not popular with the fur trade because it is unprime and lacks the qual- 
ity and finish of wild fur. This is absolutely untrue, for practically 
all the silver fox pelts on the market are taken from ranch-bred stock. 
The Biological Survey is endeavoring to keep an up-to-date list of 
persons engaged in rearing fur-bearing animals, in order to be in close 
touch with the business. It may be interesting to learn that its rec- 
ords show at present 500 breeders engaged in rearing one or more spe- 
cies of fur-bearing animals. The list is as follows: Silver foxes, 265; 
red and cross foxes, 74; blue foxes, 1; skunks, 81; raccoons, 24; minks, 
20; muskrats, 10; opossums, 9; martens, 7; squirrels, 3; beavers, 2; 
fishers, 2; Russian ermines, 1; and badgers, 1. Although this list for 
the United States is not complete, it gives a fair idea of what is being 
accomplished. 
The rearing of fur-bearing animals in captivity is practically a new 
industry, and many people engaged in the business know little if any- 
thing about it. The information at hand on this subject is very meager 
indeed; hence most persons are very shy in answering questions relating 
to the production of fur-bearing animals. State agricultural colleges 
and experiment stations and state game commissions and conservation 
societies should promote the raising of fur-bearing animals in captivity. 
Extensive investigations along the line of feeding, breeding, and manage- 
ment should be made as well as with regard to diseases and parasites. 
CONCLUSION 
Too much stress can not be laid on the value of the fur industry in 
producing a most important article in our domestic as well as in our 
