The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1899-04-07
CANADIAN SKUNK FARM
AN ISLAND DEVOTED TO PRoPAcAT-
ING THE MALoooRoUs ANIMALS.

Glut the Foreign Fur Markets-sold
Under the Name Of Alaska Sable -
Large Profits Of tho Peculiar Industry.
Canada will be able to boast Of a
new article Of export this year and
will glut the foreign markets with
skunk skins. The part of the coun-
try which will furnish the fur is in /
the northern part Of the province Of |
Quebec, and in the midst of the Laur-
entiau ranges.
Here is Canada's great skunk farm,
and here are the thousands of skunks
whose skins, under the name Of
Alaska sable, will begin to be ex-
ported this year. The existence Of
the farm is very little known.
The owner Of the farm is J.Z. Desor
mean, French Canadian, who made
his moneyas manufacturer Of gloves.
He has retired from active business
at present and has any amount of time
TO attend to his two hobbies, the
breeding Of skunks and swine. The
skunk idea first struck him. He ac-
quired three islands in the river
known variously as the Riyiere Rouge
and the Riyiere Claude. One OF these
islands he devoted to skunks and the
other to swine. The third island is
still unused. He had heard that skunk
skins commanded an excellent price in
London markets; that they could be
sold without any special preparation
beyond sailing and the dying and that
it cost next to nothing to keep skunks.
He also knew that the terrible odor
for which the skunk is responsible at
times is never manifest except by rea-
son Of great fright or anger, aud he
Immediately thought Of trying to
breed the animals systematically. He
caused advertisements to be put in all
the French Canadian country news
papers, and shortly afterward skunks
began to arrive by the dozens at his
warehouse, done up in boxes, baskets,
empty bee hives or anything that
would hold them. As they arrived he
shipped them to his island and ordered
the man whom he had put there as
caretaker to let them loose on the big
gest of the three tracts. In all he re-
[ ceived about 400 skunks.
, This was in the fall of 1895. As a
: female skunk raises from six to ten
t young each season, and as the young
: mature almost Immediately, it is easy
l to imagine the number of skunks by
t this time occupying the island In
any attempt to figure this out, how
ever, it must be remembered that il
L the spring of 1896, before the ice wa
= ont of the river, several hundred o
s the animals made tracks over the ic
!. into the forests of the mainland. Eve
y since that time the island has beef
d fenced in with wire setting
It Skunk island contains about sew
is enty-fve or eighty acres, small par
d of which is cleared for farming pun
d poses, and which produces enough t
feed the caretaker and his family, VIII
II live in small frame house. There
lie nothing to the casual visitor to distil
4. guish the island from any other, ba
l. ring the wire fence In daytime thel
vs. is no sign whatever Of its being il
Is habited by q large number of skunk
he If one penetrates the woods the whis
ne of heavy black tail perhaps ms
d, mark their presence The caretak
is responsible for the statement tn
re smells are very infrequent--the on
or when some of the males have tigh
ng They hide themselves carefullyin da
er time, but as soon as the evening /
IT. gins to fall they come out. Some
ell them are so tame that they walk rig
ND to the house and eat out Of t
err hands Of the keeper. Their food COS
re- very little. To n great extent tn
ry- find their own food, but about once
p "d month in the warm weather load
Iir- refuse from the abattoirs is shipp
mi to the island. For the rest, the ca
He taker catches hares aud other SIN
F The game, which he kills and hangs up
ihi- the bushes, where the skunks eat
ted flesh.
o oDos That Mrs. Desormeau has a g
Illet thing in the skunk farm is shown
q to the fact that the demand for pslts
'thg far greater than the supply and
he prices are correspondingly good.
9r it latest quotations for skunk skins m
them worth 80 cents apiece, wholes
he for "blaek, prime cased. " This is
,on- the first quality skins, the fur be
all black aud the skin cured by tn
n ing it inside out and drying it Of
,ted board. White skins are worth
b of cents; "full-striped" "a white ST
running clear down the back
cents and 'half-stiped" 40 ce
Laid down in England they are w
avs good deal more.
80 J Skunk skins make one of the