News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-03-07
DOG FARMS.
Places Where CANNES Are Bred
Merely for the Value Of Their
Skins.

The Orient may be well described as
one gigantic dog farm, for in all parts OF
it dogs are reared for profit, either as
food, for guardians, labor OF ornament,
but in Manchuria alone are to be found
the dog farmers proper, where dogs
are bred merely for the value OF
their skins, while the bodies are de
stroyed. The district being unsettled,
the houses resemble more the border
castles of ancient Scottish history than
peaceful farm house. A high and
broad outer wall, not made of stone OF
brick, but of sand, lime and earth, forms
a perfect ba1ricade.
This is loopholed and turreted, ami
incloses the farm buildings and folds,
the mountain robbers infesting the de
files and passes in the ranges making
these outworks necessity. The houses
are mostly made OF large clay bricks,
which are laid some distance apart, and
the hollows are filed in with earth.
Another precaution is n well sunk III
the middle of the courtyard. The breed
ofdogsis large, scraggy type, something
like n badly bred Newfoundland. The
dogs have an "undercoIt" similar to that
of collie dog. This undercoat-a sec
ond coat of very fine, silky hair, which
grows close to the skin, and is hidden
by the longer, coarse, outer coat-glves
the market value to the skin. The low
temperature and the hard existence to
which the animals are subjected are said
to be the cause Of the development OF
this coat, which, though not natural to
that breed of dogs, has been evoked by
centuries passed by their ancestors in
the cold region.
The dogs on a farm number from
dozen to a thousand. They are fed
upon dried fish and bran-cake twice a
day, and if not sufficiently fed are in the
habit of raising quarrel among them
selves, and eating one or two OF theic
own number.
Every morning at sunrise they are
fed, and are then turned into an enclos-
ed yard, where they are used as motive
power in various ways. Their houses
are simply barns, and they keep warm
by lying in tangled heap. Each day
they are carefully watched for symptoms
of insects, and in order to detect symp-
toms of peculiar form Of ophthalmia,
caused by the constant glare of the snow.
These may be said to be their only trou-
bles.
If a dog dies or is killed priest is sent
for, and, by series of spells and mean
tations, he drives away the spirit of the
dead beast, which might revenge itself
for the ill-treatmentit it had received dur
ing life. In many folds a monkey is
kept in the building to keep away sick
ness and bad luck. The dogs used for
food are killed by strangling, and the
flesh is supposed to strengthen both
mind and body, and also to prevent sick
ness, but no man who has eaten dogs
flesh is allowed to enter temple until
three days have elapsed.
About the end of February the two
year-old dogs are separated from the
others and killed, and their skins are
rudely cured They are then stored in
buildings until the arrival of the trader
in sheep skins after the ice has gone
out.
This man lays great stress upon the
poor quality of the dog skins and the
difficulty of transit, but finally buys
them for as low price as possible, and
gets the whole of his purchase trans
ported to some farm house near the river,
down which they are shippedas occasion
offers.
The great market for the skins is
Northern Europe, but a considerable
quantity find their way into the Ameri-
can market YOuthS' Companion.