Arizona republican., 1891-10-08
BEAVER FARMING.
The Curious and Profitable In.
 dustry of a Georgian.
How the Animals Are Raised and Some. thing About Their Habits-Beaver skins . Good Substitute for
 Seal skins.

"You have never heard of Dick Xiii gore's beaver farm near Bascom, Ga 2 That's queer. But l have always been surprised that some of you newspaper fellows haven't been down to write it up" The speaker, says the Chicago liams, who has been fisherman in the southeast Georgia streams for forty years.
 Dicks going to make a pile of money this year." he continued, "on account of this country and England getting together and agreeing to a closed sea son in Behring sea. You see there will not be any seal skins for market next season, and beaver skins, which make a splendid substitute, will be largely used and will bring about ten dollars a skin in New York.
 "Dick has about two hundred beavers, young and old, but there are not more than twenty to be killed for their skins this year. It's a new industry, an ex- pertinent with him, and he don't want to kill any except the surplus males for the present. But suppose you go out with me and see the farm"
 A drive of ten miles through the swamps along Briar creek and the Xiii gore place, or Beaver Dam Hollow, was reached.
 ''Now, here's the farm" said Williams, pointing to the creek, across which every few yards were rough dams and above them, in the almost still water were mounds of earth, rocks and sticks coming out few feet above the surface of the water.
 You know beavers don't show them selves much in the day, They do their work at night. Dick owns about one thousand acres running up and down the creek. He has the land posted and keeps everybody off, but it is not fenced. Fences would not keep the beavers in, but there is no danger of them going off, for this is a natural home for them, and every beaver here knows old Dick. He feeds them every night, and they come when he calls, just like hogs"
 Kilgore has been farmer down here for years, and beavers have been in the creek for all time; but it was not until recently that he began to protect and care for them with q view to making beaver-raising a regular business. It will be a profitable business, for the scarcity of seal skins has increased the value of beaver skins, and they will continue to increase year by year. A few years ago beaver skins sold as low as four dollars per skin, but they should now bring at least ten dollars each.
 Beaver skins sent to London and properly dyed seal brown, are splen- did limitations of the seal. The seal fur, you know, is naturally a gray. They are sent to London and there dyed seal brown. The reason l say send beaver skins to London is because that is the only place in the world, it seems, that furs can be properly dyed. How ever, the fur of the beaver is naturally a reddish brown, and is beautiful fur just as it is.
 But to the farm:
 The beaver is queer little animal. when full grown it weighs from fifty to sixty pounds. Its hind legs are it's prin- cipal propellers, both when in and out of the water. The hind feet are webbed and the front ones have claws, which are about as convenient to the beaver as a monkeys hands are to him. They can carry stones and sticks about in them with ease. In the water, especial ly, a beaver can carry a quantity of freight, for he swims with his hind feet and carries his load in his mouth and claws.
 Just after dark Mir Kilgore went down to the edge of the stream to feed the beavers.
 ."I don't often feed them in the sum- mer," he said, flor they get all they want along the banks of the stream. They eat bark off the trees, and at this season there is an abundance of fresh, tender bark and grasses and roots. In the winter they lay up supply of food for themselves along the banks and in their holes in the dams, which they build of roots and sticks and stones l feed them nearly all the time in winter when they flock together and unite in building dams, but in summer they scat ter-every fellow for himself-and only call them up occasionally, just enough to keep them tame. As they are scat tered off for miles around, but few will come to a call for food"
 But there were dozen romping about in the stream then, and in few min. utes quite number had gathered. Among them were score or more lit- tie fellows born only month ago. The females have from two to six young each annually, and as a consequence the families increase very rapidly.
 mixture of green food and little grain was thrown out on the ground to the herd of little animals, and they Scampered around and picked it up like so many hogs. Some of them would gather up an ear of corn or a young cornstalk and dive off with it into the stream. They were rather tame, but, like hogs, would scamper off if you tried to catch one.