The Indianapolis journal., 1902-09-07

Mnine Man Finds His Queer Venture
Profitable.


Brooklyn Eagle.
Elijah Norton, of Bangor, Me-, finds foxes
a more profitable crop than potatoes or
hay, and so he long ago quit planting and
hoeing and moving, and is now devoting
his entire attention to raising the sharp
eyed and bushy-tailed little animals,
whose fur is in great demand always and
everywhere. When Norton began raising
foxes II was an experiment; now he has
the business established on a highly profit
able basis, and his sunny hillside farm on
the bank of the Piscataqua is known as the
best-paying piece of land in Maine.
The Norton fox farm is not the first in
Maine for foxes had been successfully
bred by man on Heron island, Boothbay
harbor, for years before the Dover enter
prise was thought of.
When Norton got ready to go into the
fox business he visited the Heron-island
farm, and one on Prince Edward island,
in the Gulf of st. Lawrence, to get points,
and also to buy some breeding stock. Then
he started in to beat the original fox far
mers, and he has succeeded.
Being an old hunter, and knowing the
ways of foxes, Norton at the outset recog-
nized the fact that to be healthy, and thus
profitable his stock must be contented and
to insure that happy condition he so con-
structed and arranged his inclosure as to
dispel the idea of captivity-which foxes
cannot endure. He built a fence sixteen
feet high, of a heavy and specially woven
wire, to keep the foxes in and to keep 9TH
er animals olt. Six Enclosures thus formed
each of them is a kennel, built of wood and
set deep into the earth, serving as a nur-
sery and as a den for the foxes in winter.
AT f1rst few of the foxes escaped by bur-
rowing down under the fence, but Norton
stopped this by carrying the wire down
four to eight feet to the solid ledge. The
whole farm has been allowed to grow up
with rank grass and weeds. so that it re-
sembles the native haunts of the fox in the
wildwood, and Norton's stock does not
seem to realize that It is living in cap
a GtranUQr ho MIA
at first only rank growth of weeds and
underbrush, the foxes all scurrying to COW
er at his approach. but on looking closely
one may detect here and there a 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
w1lds or Maine, Canada, Ohio and Alaska,
from all of which regions the colony has
been recruited.
On the farm are common red foxes from
the woods of Maine; blue foxes from Alas
ka, silver grays from Prince Edward
island and blacks from Ohio. The reds are
the commonest and least valued of foxes;
blues are worth more; but the silver grays
and blacks are the aristocrats. AS a matter
| of fact, the black and the silver gray are
the same breed, silver gray being a black
with sprinkling of gray hairs The black
| fox pelt is among the most valuable of
| furs, fine specimens frequently bringing
| from $500 to 5000. while in several Instances
as high as $1,000 to $1,000 has been paid
/ 500 to $3.50
| Norton had not been long i'm the business
when he made the important discovery
| that Ii is possible to reproduce black and
silver gray foxes. Naturalists saw that
| these rare specimens are. simply freaks of
nature, being liable to appear among the
| common reds at any time while their
f; progeny Is more than likely to wear the
plebeian red coat Norton has discovered
! however, that by inbreeding il is possible
| in the course OF time. to eliminate the red
! and produce the genuine black variety. He
| bought an Ohio black fox, paying $500 for
| il, and this he bred with a common Maine
| red, then bred their progeny together and
| so on. Thus far he has met with fiattering
/ success. and he feels confident that his sue
| cess will continue. Last year he sold pair
| of black foxes bred on his farm for $500.
and now has family Of four which he
values at S1,o00.
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 simply pokes
| his hand down into a burrow TO which
shelter they flee when any one approaches
| and pulls the animal out, much as one
would take an apple out OF a bag. All of
| his $50 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 n pair of
! twin blacks. now ten weeks old coal black
| with the exception OF tuft of snowy
| white at the tips of their tails fat fluffy
| and as playful as kittens.