Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1914-05-16
FOR FUR
Breeding Of Foxes and Skunks
for Their PeIts.
Young industry to BE ~ Great Prae-
teal Importance and Promises to
Give Results Of Interest to Phil
osophlcal Naturalists.

The young industry OF fur farming
is not only likely to be of great prac-
teal Importance. but. like all other
practically conducted geological pur-
suits, is promising to give results OF
interest TO the philosophical natural
lists. It so happens. for instance. says
the London Standard, that the two
favorite animals with the fur farmer
the fox and the skunk, present strik-
ing variations in their fur, and the Sc
lection OF such variations to produce
the most valuable type has already
furnished results OF scientific value
The silver fox, for Instance, Is only
color variety of the red fox, and no
doubt Il is to the natural desire to IN
crease the numbers Of this valued
freak" that the initiation OF fox farm
ing is due. Experiment has proved
that silver foxes. like other varieties
of color in more familiar animals, are
amenable to selective breeding; as
rule, a pair Of silvers will produce sill
yer young, though some reversion TO
the ancestral red coat must be always
looked for, at any rate during the first
few generations of breeding
But it is not necessary to start with
a pair of silvers to produce silver on
springs; one breeder raised from
silver male and a red vixen litter OF
five pups, two only of which were red
one silver and two cross" a term
which will be explained directly. Inc
silver animal was bred to another
unrelated-silver and produced two
cross" pups and one of its own color.
This last silver became the parent OF
seven pups, all Of them silvers. Inc
cross" fox, which is evidently the In
termediate form between the typical
red and the valued silver and black
types, is a particolored animal, red
on the body and black on the face
limbs and part Of the brush. IL Is
thus the exact opposite Of a black
and tan dog, since in such an amman
as the most casual observer knows
the black is found on the trunk and
the tan on the face and limbs.
II seems curious that two animals
so nearly related as the fox and the
dog should vary in such different d.
rections: but the fact is not unprece-
dented, a very similar case being
found in two well known birds which
are similarly related. These are the
pheasant and the guinea fowl, birds oil
| the same family, and liable to pro
duce pied varieties; but In a pieo
pheasant It will be noted that the
| white feathers are mostly confined tC
the upper parts, while In a pied guinea
fowl II is the under parts that arr
white.
Cases like this should make us eau
tious In attributing special significance
| to the appearance of white on the
Upper parts of certain wild animals
abnormal though 1t may seem. Thus
the skunk, for the most part blaci
animal, shows white on the upper
parts. as a rule, and this is supposed
to act as a warning to other animals
to beware OF the essence peddler.'
But this white is variable in extent
and one OF the objects of the skunl
farmer is to get rid Of 1t as much al
possible, skunk skins being graded, 9th
ier things being equal, on their black
ness. 1t is found that by using blacl
males and females with only a small
| amount of white, from thirty to sew
enty-five per cent of the produce vii
come black, or first quality, though
of course. a certain amount OF revei
sion must be reckoned with.
The fact that owls have to b
guarded against as serious enemie
nv the skunk raiser shows that tn
white streak on the skunk's head an
hack is probably purely incidenta
and has no warning" significance.
NAV proclaim to the puma and Ign
the wolf and fox, that the skunk is
animal better left alone, but this doe
not do the malodorous little bea'
much good II his snowy badge onl
gives him away to his far more TO
midable feathered foe, which, hun
ing on silent wing above, has him
such a deadly disadvantage, beside
being less sensitive to stinks than al
the mammalian carnivores. Familli
as we are with the depredations
cats. weasels and foxes on birds
are apt to forget that the birds
prey get their own back with
8 terest. and all theories of colorau'
and its uses must take into accou
=, this fact: the skunk would proDaD
be better of II he we're protect
: rather than advertised by his coat al
e his snowy pied livery is quite pos
n bly, rather a disadvantage than oth'