The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1891-03-21
MINK FARMING.
PROFIT and Enjoyment in Raising the
Little Fur Bearers.

Little Fur Bearers.
My father had at one time thirty mink.
mostly of his own raising, and they were
as tame and easily handled a. so many
kittens; but the decline in furs, and con-
seQnently in our enthusiasm in the en-
tcrprisc and our subsequent removal to
Tennessee, put N end to the experiment.
We lost a nusnner. remember. toward
the last by feeding them ;oom lch beefs
liver. The little animals were exceed
ingly fond OF liver, and we threw into
the yard one day a whole beef's liver, on
which they gorged themselves for several
days. This brought on kind of dysen.
terry, of which good many died. We
also lost number from no cause that we
could ascertain. but which now believe
was from keeping too many confined in
too small space. The mink is a soil
tary animal by nature, and when too
many are by force congreSated it brings
on contagious diseases among them.
Our Enclosure was at first about four
or five rods square, and surrounded by a
ciump of small spruce trees, and had
stream of water constantly running
through it in box about foot wide
and the same depth. Later we found
that the animals had to be separated
most OF the year. for they are vicious
fighters, especially the old ones, and thus
the enclosure was divided up into small
compartments. The outside was an up
right tight board fence six feet high,
resting on stone wall one foot below
the surface. with fiat stones at the bot
tom, projecting in, also with board a
foot wide, projecting inward from
the top, and the corners lined with tin.
Then to insure their not climbing out
We used to clip the two front rails of the
fore paws. If this is done when the ami
NAL is young, and the nail clipped close
up-that is, taking off the end of the toe
with tit will not be likely to grow
cut again, and this quite effectually spoils
the animals ability as climber or digger.
As boy it was my part of the farm
chores to look after the ''minkery," and
an agreeable duty it was to me in many
respects. The feed consisted almost en-
treiy of woodchucks, in which our Sec
tion of Western New York abounded,
and many an afternoon the excuse of be-
ing out of mink bait" was sufficient to
n poor woodchuck fell victim to my
little smoothbore at short range The
young ones were fed mostly on milk,
tapping it up greedily like young pup
PIES.
A young mink is easily tanned, and
they are the most cute and playful little
creatures in the world. They will play
together for hours at a time, rolling and
tumbling over each other in the water
and out in the most amusing manner.
They were sociablc and friendly, and
seemed delighted when came into the
yard to see them. They would crawl all
over me, and up my coat sleeve and
pantalOOn legs, and let me feel of their
sharp, needle like teeth without Offering
to bite. have seen them rolling and
tumbling in the water, when one would
stretch out and appear to be dead and
the other would seize him by the nape
of the neck and drag him out of the
water and several feet out on the ground,
when the ''dead" mink would suddenly
jump, and they would both scramble in
TO the water and reverse the perform
ance.
Like all meat eating animals the mink
would gorge themselves with enough at
"a time to last them two or three days,
and during such periods they are stupid
and quiet, spending most of the time
asleep, and when handled will laZily
open their eyes and stretch out and 90
to sleep again. But let them once get
fairly hungry and they are almost as
lively avarmint as ever saw. At such
times it is best to be careful about feed
ing them bits of meat from your hand,
for they are liable to grab hold of your
finger instead, and then mink will beat
any bull terrier that ever lived in the
matter of hanging on, and dozen tom.
cats cannot do as lively snarling and
scratching. You may swing them
around, rap them against the fence or
duck them under the water, they still
hold their grip. and nothing but good
strong choking until the breath is fairly
gone will induce them to let GO