Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-11-05

grown, will be worth from $500 to $1,000
apiece and possibly more. The mother OF
these foxes was very nervous animal and
the farmers feared she might kill her young.
30 they were taken away and given to the
cat in place of her kittens. The cat adopted
them and she plays with them as though
they were her real baby kittens The thou
sand-dollar foxes seem to like their new
mother quite as well as their old one.
The managers tell me it is necessary to
have cats around fox farm for such COM
plicatons. They say that one man in east
ern. Canada lost litter of silver foxes be-
cause he would not pay high price for
cat. The mother of the foxes had died. and
in looking around to find a cat in~the proper
condition, the farmer discovered but one
Sonly The owner of the cat appreciated his
need and refused to sell his cat for less than
$500. The fox farmer was indignant and re-
fused. The result was that he lost five little
foxes that might have been worth $4,000,
and all for five-hundred-d dollar cat. One fox
raised by a cat here at Fairbanks had a pelt
which was valued at $780,
The breeding of the foxes is very carefully
handled. At mating time the animals are
sensitive to strange sights noises and
smells and the ranches are closed to every
one but the keepers. Dogs and other ami
mails are kept out of the neighborhood, and
the keepers sometimes watch the pens from
dark chamber, out of which they look
through small window. 1t takes so days
or more after mating before the animals
bear. They have only one litter year, and
litter may consist of from one to nine
pups. A fox will continue to bear UP to 10 or
years of age and will mate at eight
months of age. The young look like dog
pups and play and bark just like dogs. am
told that silver gray foxes usually breed true
to their color and that cross foxes will some
times throw black foxes. "A cross fox is the
marriage of the black and the red.
There is great demand among the fox
farmers for wild foxes for breeding When
the Fairbanks farm was started they paid as
high as $1,000 apiece for black foxes and 500
and upward for red ones. The Indians
brought them in for sale and they are do
ing SO now. There is a closed season for
killing foxes, but some of the farmers have
been paying the Indians for the live young
they catch, and shipping them to the east
as ranch-bred. The other~day w. P. Hem
enway, the government fur warden here,
found AZ live young in the hands Of Indians,
and turned them all loose. This number in
cluded 10 blacks, worth at least $1,000 or
more apiece When they let the foxes go
from $4,000 to $4,000 fled off into the
woods. The Indians could not help them
selves for fear of the law.
In the Yukon, when an Indian finds fox
next he watches it until the closed season is
over, and then tries to trap the foxes with
traps so protected by wrappings that they
will hold the animals without injuring them.
There has been great change in the
prices of foxes and fox skins since the break
ing out of the great war in Europe. Immed-
lately following that time the great firm of
Lampson's in London, which handled prac-
tically all of the furs of the world, closed its
doors and declared it would hold no sales
during the war. This knocked the life out of
the fur trade and prices fell. This was so
during 1914 and 1915, ordinary fox skins
dropped to one-third their value and the
fine ones were put away. Beavers brought
less than half price and marten and lynx
skins were drug in the market. In the lat
ter part of 1915 furs began to go up, and
they are now fast coming back to their old
figures. They will continue to advance and
silver fox skins will probably be worth more
than ever before.
AS it is now good black or a silver fox
skin brings an enormous price. The firm at
Fairbanks has averaged $3.50 for skins OF