The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-07-17
A NOVEL INDUSTRY.
FRED CLARK'S SKUNK FARM IN
WESTERN NEW YORK.
BE Raises the Animals for Their
Skins, Which He Sells ut q
Good Profit-His Mysterious
Power Over the Skunks.

he Genesee River, says the Mt. Morris
N. " correspondent of the New York
Sun. 1t is stocked with $50 skunks.
Next month, the breeding month of
hunks, Mr.. Clark expects that this num-
Der will be increased to 1000 or more.
Mr.. Clark began raising skunks for the
purpose of selling their skins one year
lro last fall. He selected barren acre
# land on o steep hillside as site for
ais farm. He surrounded this plot with
, close board fence three feet high and
,et deep in stone foundation, which
,kunks can neither undermine nor dig
through. He dug long, narrow holes
into the side hill, followed out a pit
,bout as big as half -bushel basket at the
md of each hole, laid boards over the
pits and approaches, and then threw on
earth enough to prevent the penetration
Of the cold in winter.
Then MIR. Clark caught his skunks.
His neighbors had laughed at him good
deal when he first told them of his plan
to raise skunks and sell their skins.
When he built his board fence and
honeycombed his fathers side hill with
skunk nests they laughed harder, and told
oil the people at the Old Pine Tavern
cross roads and at the Moscow corner
grocery about foolish young Clark, who
had spent so much money laying out a
skunk farm before he got his skunks.
They didn't know that Mr.. Clark was a
skunk tanner, and they thought he
couldn't catch his stock without an ex-
perience with skunk high jinks which
would sicken him of the whole enterprise.
Mr.. Clark went skunk hunting, never
theless, with q spade and two market
baskets. Whenever he found wood
chuck's hole which gave indications that
it contained skunks, he dug into it. He
found eighteen skunks on the first day Of
his hunt. He picked them out of their
holes by the back, neck or tail, just as
they happened to come, and they never
objected. They we're rs docile as kit
tens in his hands. After he had filed
both baskets with skunks, Mr.. Clark
came upon two big black fellows, espe-
cially valuable for breeding purposes.
He caught them, removed his coat and
tied knot in the end of each sleeve, and
tucked skunk in through each armhole.
When the neighbors saw him come home
at the end of his first hunt with basket
full of skunks on each arm, coatful of
skunks thrown over his shoulder, and
smelling only of the pines and hemlocks,
they stopped laughing at him and his
stock farm.
MIR. Clark's novel business has pros.
pered. Last May twenty black she
skunks on his farm bore and reared
140 little skunks. Mr.. Clark ther
killed off about thirty head of his old
stock and sold the skins to buyers fol
New York fur dealers for $50. For the
coal-blaclz skins the buyers pay 81. sc
each; for half-striped skin, ST.; for {
ull.striped rs cents; for white skunk
skin only 25 or 80 cents. Since last
May Mr.. Clark has been killing off hi!
striped and white skunks. He ha'
secured the woods along the Geneset
River for the finest black he skunks anc
has caught some twenty or more O.
them, coal black and as large as ton
cats. He thinks he has in them a guar
antee of the blackness Of the 500 o.
more little skunks which he expect
next month.
The cost of raising skunks, according
| to Mr.. Clark's experience, is almos
nothing. Young ones he feeds OF
SKINNED or sour milk, 'blighted sweet
corn, small pumpkins and frost-bitter
melons. The old ones get diet les
choice. Whenever horse, cow, sheel
or hog in the neighborhood, dies Of dis
ease, the carcass is carted to MIR. Clark
skunk farm. The skunks make shor
work OF the meat. In day or twt
they strip off the hide, tear the fesl
from the ribs and begin gorging them
selves with the entrails. They stuff them
selves day and night until they can hard
ly crawl back to their holes. They thel
roll themselves together, often fifteen O.
sixteen of them In one of the nests hard
( ly eighteen inches in diameter, and sleel
for weeks. This last winter Mr.. Clark
$50 skunks have eaten only horse
O calf and o sheep. All told, Mr.
Clark has not spent $40 in feeding hi
skunks since he stocked his farm, al
most two years ago.
A Sun correspondent found Mr.. Clark
sitting on the fence which encloses hi
farm. Mr.. Clark is a well-knit, intelli
gent looking young man of some thirty
years. He has soft, sleepy eyes, and
moves his hands in lazy, easy fashion
when handling sllunks. He couldn't tel
why sl1unks treated him more consider
ately than they treated other people, bu
was ready to prove they did. He tool
the correspondent down the hillside to th'
skeleton of horse at which thirty skunk
were tugging for dear life. They paid lit
tie attention to his approach, save tina
they chartered little louder. NJ. Clarl
grabbed half striped skunk by the nap'
Of the neck, lifted him up, patted him
and poked him in the ribs. The skunl
curled up his back feet, wagged his tai
harmlessly, and looked happy. Then MIR
Clark dropped him to pick up biz
black skunk. He treated the black skunl
lust 'as he had treated the half striped
one, and the black skunk took to it q
kindly as if had been pet cat. Thel
Mr.. Clark fondled, teased, and pushed
about dozen or more other skunks. Al
of them seemed to think it all great fun
and capered about like lot Of kittens.
ssIt's knack. suppose got it b,
nrsctice," explained Mr.. Clark, as b.