The Wrangell sentinel., 1918-11-21
FOX FAR MING
An Interesting Article by MT.
 Frederic E. Blitz of Tele- graph Creek.
Telegraph Creek, B. C.,
 October 1, 1918.

IiiS ouolioiiSi' " h"'io
 Dear Sir:
 I thought that poss bly, your readers might be interested in a short article regarding the fox Industry in general as it appears to me from personal contact.
 In the first place I want to say that the longer one stays at it, the less one wants to leave it. It is intensely fascinating to anyone who is at all lover of animals, and apart from the above it is a profitable industry financially when operated by business meth ods.
 When one stops to consider just for moment, the wonderful changes which have taken place in the fox industry since it was first started about thirty years ago, it certainly is most amazing. Of course the pioneers in the fox business experimented for yeas before success rewarded their eff forts. Ideas formulated one year were abandoned the next, but these men laid the foundations of wonderful industry.
 Today conditions have changed. There are some publications de- voted to the fox industry which help to educate the public who contemplate taking up the fur raising business. l believe the present to be an opportune time to start in the raising of foxes in captivity, as the experimental and speculative periods are over, and with the prospect of the greatest fur markets in the world being again opened to the fur trade af- ter the war, for the war cannot go on indefinitely. The fur mar ket of the United States showed a decided advance during last winter, over prices obtained the two preceding years; hence, where will the fur market go when the war is over?
 The cost of establishing fox ranch depends largely upon the locality, transportation facilities, and the amount of labor that the owner is willing to perform in building the enclosures and dens. At present the cost of suitable wire netting is high, the increase in price being about 300 per cent above pre-war prices. The cost of wire netting and miscellaneous hardware to complete enclosures suitable for two pairs of foxes in this locality would amount to $4O0.0O. Ordinarily in a fur country there is a suitable supply of timber for the posts and frame work for the enclosures. The fox yards are generally arranged in the form of a square, the sides of each enclosure being twenty five feet in length, but fifty feet in length and width would be the more suitable.
 In constructing the enclosure posts are set in the ground at in tervals of about eight feet, and a stout frame work of lumber or poles attached to the upright posts, and the wire netting is then stretched and fastened over this. It is necessary to extend the wire into the ground to a depth of four feet to prevent the foxes from digging their way out, but this depends on the nature of the soil. Loose, sandy soilshould be avoided in selecting a site for a fox ranch, but dry gravel and boulders on well-drained south ern slope, well covered with small deciduous trees, would be ideal. Ten feet is found to be high enough for the fox yards here, an overhang of wire netting be- ing set on the top of the posts and extending over the sides eighteen inches, to prevent the -fovoc froro clirobinU ovar tho +On