CHAPTER XXI. 
RAISING FUR BEARING ANIMALS OF ALL KINDS IS NOW 
PROFITABLE 
Locate your animals where feed is cheap and plentiful—make 
their home as near their nature home as you can. 
If you want to raise mink or otter, locate where there are plenty 
of fish. If you want to raise fox, coyote, wolf, fisher or martin, locate 
near a city where you can get waste from hotels, butcher shops, 
slaughter houses, etc. Skunk and opossum can also be raised suc¬ 
cessfully. The best place to raise them is on an island; if you have 
them surrounded by water they will not swim to get away. If the 
island overflows you should build them houses on posts or piling, 
that is, above the high water mark. 
To make a home for otter or mink you should get a natural pond 
or lake and fence it in so they can’t escape; the water should be 
fresh and clean and supplied with fish and crawfish. You can build 
a log raft if you have no pond or lake, and use copper or brass wire 
between the logs to prevent the animals from escaping. This raft 
should be completely fenced in with woven wire and covered overhead. 
The water that raises between the logs will answer for live boxes 
for your fish and the animals can catch them at will. Make them 
small shelters, or houses, to live in. 
In making homes for dry land animals such as fox, fisher, w r olves 
or coyotes, fence in a place where the animals can have fresh running 
water at all times. ' 
You should dig ditches, say 18 to 24 inches deep, cover the ditch 
with boards and cover the boards with dirt taken out of the ditch. 
This w T ill make dens for the animals from which they will make many 
more to their liking. You should separate the males from the fe¬ 
males when they, are having young and keep them separate until the 
young are weaned. 
CHAPTER XXII. 
THE GIST OF TRAPPING 
First locate your trapping ground where there are animals to trap. 
Buy the best make of traps. 
The No. 2 double spring Newhouse is my favorite trap for otter, 
coyote, wolf, raccoon, fox and lynx cat. No. 4 for beaver. No. 6 
with teeth for lynx, cougar, panther and lion. No. 15 offset jaws 
with teeth for bear. No. V /2 for mink, muskrat, skunk and opossum. 
Cleanse your traps at least once a month. Rake a pile of leaves; 
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