Omaha daily bee., 1917-10-25
More About Furs
Bp Frederic J. Hoskt,s

Washington, Oct 22-The unusual popularity
OF wolf" furs this fall is largely the work of the
United States government
This sounds strange enough, inasmuch as the
government is not generally regarded as fashion
arbiter but it is literally true. For the past year
the biological survey has been waging war upon
the coyotes of the western praries; because these
animals are destroying great deal of live stock,
especially sheep The resultant peltries have
been sold to the fur industry by the government
in order to defray the cost OF the campaign and
in this way about 10000 coyote hides have been
thrown on the market in, addition to those re-
ceived from ordinary channels.
1t is the regular strategy of the fur trade to
popuarze whatever furs it has in large guam
titles in order to get rid Of these and also be-
cause only furs on hand in large quantities can
supply the demand. The popularity of fox in
recent years is not due to the fact that the
women prefer to wear fox, but solely to the
growth of the industry OF raising fox in cap
tivity. At the same time the rare and beautiful
mink fur is not at all popular because the trade
has not enough OF it to supply popular demand
Hence few mink furs are made up" few are sold,
and the price OF the raw fur declines The big
fur houses nevertheless 60 on buying mink, and
when enough of it has accumulated they will
popularize it and sell off their accumulated stock
at high prices.
Thus the power Of fashion over the feminine
mind is turned to good commercial account. This
year everyone who can afford 1t is wearing fox,
and everyone who cannot afford fox is wearing
the hides of sheep-killing coyotes, which is very
commendable. The coyote is small variety OF
wolf The true timber wolf is almost as large
as panther, and his hide can be used only for
rugs.
These facts about the fur industry were gath
cred in conversation with Prof Ned Dearborn of
h;nln hn is he emf ex-
pert on ur-bearing animals. He has a cabinet
in his office which contains large assortment OF
furs, with which he illustrates his statements.
He has also in northern New York near Lake
Champlain little farm of 10 acres where he is
experimenting in the raising of fur-bearng ami
mails in captivity He firmly believes that this is
to become great industry, and not only that
great quantities of fur will be produced from do
mestcatcd fur-bearng animals, but that this fur
will be very superior to that grown in the wild
state. Already ranch-bred fox is recognized as
superior to wild fox, and the skunk, which is the
only other fur-bearing animal that has been ex-
tensvely domestcated, has been deprived OF the
white stripes which make 1t necessary to dye the
wild petres.
Prof Dearborn now has on his farm blue
foxes, fishers, martens, mnks and skunks,. and
is steadily increasing both the number and va
riety OF his stock He has already done a/great
deal to popularize the raising of mink in cap
tvity, but the present scarcity and resultant un-
popularity of mink fur has checked the growth
of this industry. Prof Dearborn is not now re-
ceiving nearly as many requests for information
on the subject as he was before the war began.
But he is confidently looking forward to the time
when mink will again become popular
AT one time Prof Dearborn thought he had
discovered a new and important fur-bearing ami.
NAL in the American jack rabbit The tur OF
some of them looks exactly like that OF the priced
chnchilla Examination under the microscope,
however, showed that the fur of the jack rabbit
has a weakness in that there Is a flaw III each
hair, causing it to break when the fur is subjected
to hard usage. So the jack rabbit was saved from
fame as fur-bearing animal.
One OF the most abundant animals in America
OF the fur-bearng varieties the squirrels; but
none of the more common American squirrels
produces fur OF commercial value although GUAM
titles OF Russian squirrel skins are imported every
year. Prof. Dearborn found upon making study
Of the situation that there is one American va
riety OF squirrel which has fur of the finest quail
ity. This is the Abbott squirrel OF the southwest
it is easily the most beautiful of the American
squirrels, having svery gray fur, an enormous
syery tall long tufted ears, and is unusually
graceful in its movements. 1t inhabits the great
yellow pine forests of the lower slopes of the
southwestern Rockies, and is seldom found in
abundance. Prof. Dearborn reasoned that this
animal was worth more as an ornament in his
native woods than his hide would be draped about
the neck of that all-destroying animal-the woman
OF fashion. Hence he has not said much about
the fur value of the Abbott squirrel 1t would be
an interesting and possibly profitable experiment
to try to domesticate it.
Fur farming is in its experimental stages, but