The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-27

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~ clucked and scratched con-
n tentedly in their yard. 1t was
Il pleasant place. There was
soft loan. a little patch of gravel and
a dusty eXpanse FOR dry baths. The
lord OF the harem tapped his way to
a stump in a corner OF the low fence
and posed there. thu spring sun Of
Prince Edward Island waking his iri-
descent feathers to "a jewellike blaze.
His wives looked at him proudly. And
then calamity descended
A 1.-the form OF a lustrous black,
sharp nosed. sharp cared and bushy
tailed leaped the fence gracefully. A
snap Of the jaws and Chanticleer lay
low. his neck broken. while the hens
fled screaming. Their lamentations
brought the farmers wife.
Angus" she called. there's a black
fox in the fowl yard. Hurry"
Little need for the last word Of ad-
vice. BLACK foX on Prince Edward
Island means wealth. McTavish and
his wife Joined in an earnest attempt
to capture the marauder. 4 gun was
barred. for that would have meant in
jury To the glossy pelt. Maybe Rey-
nard knew it, for he waited until his
pursuers We're close by and then with
a detian fiirt of his brush skipped into
the underbrush. And with him went a
vision Of thousands of dollars.
Thousands? you may say with an
~incredulous lift of the eyebrows.
That's absolutely right, for the royal
black fox has brought a vast income
to this smallest of the Canadian prov
inces. Canny Scotch farmers didn't
need a second hint with such "A chance
for gathering in good dollars. and the
result is what might have been en-
pected. The black fox has been COM
mercialized. Ii was a speculation at
first, but to-day fox ranching has as
sumed the proportions Of "A communal
industry. The mere hunting down Of
a black fox for his pelt has zen rele-
gated to the dark ages. Now the fur
farmers have kennels and n pair of
live foxes for breeding purposes that
have been capitalized at $40, 900.
Properly are these Prince Edward
Island foxes known as royal silvers
or royal blacks, Their pelts are
Catalogued at prices ranging from $500
10 $4,000 each at winter fur auctions
in London. TIVE nty skins from one
island ranch three years ago averaged
nearly Sl,i00 each. Since that time
the fine bred foxes have been saved
for r, productive purposes, hut n test
pelt put on the market in 1914 brought
approximately $1,000, and In the Paris
shops the current quotations Ibcforc
the war; ranged around $4,000.
When n vixen, or female fox,
bears from twenty-five to thirty
five fox pups in the course of her ten
years of motherhood Il is little Won
der hat she is worth literally from
two to o u times her weight in gold.
A normal black fox weighs from nine
to eleven pounds and is now selling,
alive. at from $4,000 to $4,000. while
an equal weight Of refined gold is val
ued at but from $2,915 to $3,G37.
The largest source of wild black fox
pelts at present is northwestern Can
ada. Recent Edmonton dispatches
state thai a considerable number of
this seasons take are valued at from
$500 to 81, 500. But Just as Individually
as the black fox skin has usurped
foremost position in the fur market
no surely has the Prince Edward ISL
and pelt won first place among black
fox furs,
The first black foxes were captured
and bred successfully on Prince Ed
ward Island In 1892, no less than three
different individuals claiming the
credit for the achievement.
The keeping Of foxes for fur was
then decidedly . novelty. Many ex'