The sun., 1897-01-10

The Iaterssting Product or Farm In New
Jersey.

FROM the Philadelphia Nmcs
Just back Of Lakewood. in New Jersey,
there is an old farmer. commonly known as
Ferret Jim." who owns one Of the best stocked
ferret farms in this country, and he is under
contract to furnish dealers with several hun
dred Of these queer but useful animals every
year. 1t is surprising 10 the uninitiAted 10 find
how many useful purposes tho ferrets can be
put to these DAYS, and an hours talk with
Ferret Jim" Will convince you that the ami
NAL is one OF the most important adtunsts to
There ain't no hunter in the country, that
can get along without ferret" he explains.
rabbit huntin' atnl nowhere without ferret
10 run into the hole after the game, aud as fur
rat catohin'. yer dogs amt In Y, One OF these
day than yer dogs and cats can kill In a week.
Then we've heard toll OF the ferret thai saved
the river broke ono day. an the engineers said
they'd have TO take up the pipe and lay u now
bet--comes alonl and says. No. II they'd
pull out tho old cable. he'd agree to Eet new
one It's place w5sout 'hH ppe
turned rat loose In the pipe. and then start
ed a ferret after II. He didn't forget to tie =
string TO the hind leg of the ferret, so tina,
when the creature came oul at the other end
he had line straight through the oipe under
Wire ans hon ns% :%sy cable OF
Now. ! amt sayin' that plum bers and eng-
neers are using many ferrets to-day. bat they
out a piece OF piping under ground. When \
rat is turned loose in a pipe stopped up with
mud, and ferret Is put Oh the scene after t..
you can bet that IL don't take that rat long to
b' re its way through tho obstruction. And
take my word Tor II, the ferret amt much
slower. So you sec tho ferret Ia n great clean
er o! underground pipes, and even sewers"
There may be some who would discount Fer
ret Jim's" prophecies In the plumbing line,
but certainly there IL no contradicting his sue
cess In ferret farming. In every large city
hundreds OF forrets are In constant demand.
and dealers make u business OF renting these
animals to the owners OF large storehouses
wnere rats tend To accumulate. a good ferret
Will clean out.the raIs.in.a ~ week or two. and tho
dealer receives n dollar per day for the loan OF
each ferret. These dealers get their supply OF
ferrets from the Jers. y faraI, or from some
similar establishments in other parts OF the
country, paying. about Sl.6O to 81 apiece, de-
pending upon the season OF the year. In
summer the price OF the ferrets is the lowest,
but In the winter the cost advances sharply, as
there Is more demand from rabbit hunters.
Last year nearly 1000 forrets were raised on
the farm hack OF Lakewood, and three-Quar-
ters OF them were sold, leaving q good balance
for breeding purposes. The appearance OF
tho ferret farm Is very much Ike a modern
poultry yard, II Is divided into pens made OF
ordinary barrels and dry goods boxes. These
boxes are sunk several inches into the ground
and rest upon boards buried there This ID, TO
prevent the ferrets from burrowinR out OF the
pen The TOD OF the box 10 covered with a
wire netting, and opening on one side from
each house 10 n smaller box. where q nest OF
straw and hay 10 proyided.tos the female. In