The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-02
A MAINE FOX FARM.
Breeding Animals for Fur More Profit
 able Than Raising Crops.

Dover (Me) Special to N. Y. Tribune
 foxes a more profitable crop than pota- toes or hay, and so he long ago quit planting and hoeing and moving and is now devoting his entire attention to rais- ing the sharp-eared and bushy- tailed llt- tie animals, whose fur Is in great demand always and everywhere. When Norton began raising foxes it was an experi- ment; now he has the business estab- lished on a highly profitable basis, and his sunny hillside farm on the bank or the Piscataquis is known as the best paying piece Of land in Maine.
 The Norton fox farm is nor the first in Maine, for foxes had been successfully bred by a man on Heron island, Booth bay harbor, years before the Dover enter prise was thought of. When Norton got ready to go into the fox business he visit ed the Heron island farm and one on Prince Edward island, in the gulf of St. Lawrence, to get points and also to buy some bleeding stock. Then he started in to beat the original fox farmers, and he has succeeded.
 Being an old hunter, and knowing the ways of foxes, Norton at the outset recognized the fact that to be healthy and thus profitable, his stock must be contented, and to insure that happy con-
 
 his inclosure as to dispel the idea of captivity-which foxes cannot endure. He built a fence 16 feet high, of heavy and specially woven wire, to keep the foxes in, and to keep other animals out. Six inclosures thus formed cover about one and a half acres of ground and in each of them is a kennel built or Wood and set deep into the earth, serving as a nursery and as a den for the foxes in
 Af f1an 0C caped by burrowing down under the fence, but Norton stopped this by carry ing the wire down from four to eight feet to the solid ledge. The whole farm has been allowed to grow up with rang grass and weeds, so that 1t resembles the native haunts of the fox in the Wild wood, and Norton's stock does not seem to realize that 1t is living in captivity stranger visiting the place sees at first only the growth of weeds and under brush, the foxes all scurrying to cover at his approach, but, on looking cioseiy, one may detect here and there pair of bright eyes peeping out at him from the tangle. The Norton foxes are as wary and alert as ever their ancestors were in the wilds of Maine, Canada, Ohio and Alaska, from all of which re- gions the colony has been recruited.
 On the farm are common red foxes from the woods of Maine, blue foxes rom Alaska, silver grays from Prince Edward Island and blacks from Ohio. The reds are the commonest and least valuable Of foxes: blues are worth more, but the silver grays and blacks are the aristo- crats. As a matter of fact, the black and the silver gray are the same breed sil- yer gray being a black, with sprinknng of gray hairs. The black fox pelt Is among the most valuable of furs, fine speci- mems frequently bringing $500 to s6Oo, while in several instances as high as 5000 to $1200 has been paid. Ordinarily black fox pelt is quoted at $20O to $25O.
 Norton had been long in the business when he made the important discovery that 1t is possible to reproduce black ana silver gray foxes. Naturalists say that these rare specimens are simply 1reaks of nature, being liable to appear among the common reds at any time, while their progeny is more than likely to wear the plebeian red coat. Norton has discovered, however, that by inbreeding, 1t is possi- ble in the course of time, to eliminate the red and produce the genuine black yarie= ty He bought an Ohio black fox, paying $500 for 1t, and this he bred with com mon Maine red, then fred their progeny together, and so on. Thus far he has met with hattering success, and he feels con fdent that his success will continue. Last year he sold pair of black foxes bred on his farm for $500. and now has fam ily of four which he values at S1000.
 The foxes are fed with scraps of meat bread milk and the like, and are all in good health. In summer time they need to be watered but in winter they quench their thirst with snow. When Norton wants to capture one of his foxes he sim ply pokes his hand down Into a burrow. to which shelter they flee when any one approaches, and pulls the animal our, much as one would take an apple out of a bag All of his thirty-ive foxes seem to know him as dogs know their master, and at feeding time they frolic about him like so many kittens The beauties of the colony are a pair of twin blacks, now ten weeks old. coal black with the exception of a tuft of snow-white at the tips of their tails; fat. fluffy and as play ful as kittens.