Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-02-13
BIG FUR SALE
NOW IN PROGRESS
One Item of 10000 Skunk Skins,
Valued at About $4,000 Look.
ed Over at Plant of Burlington
Rendering Company Yester-
day

The mid-winter sale of furs al the Bur-
lington Rendering company's plant is
now in progress and probably will be
concluded tomorrow night. This sale
is one OF the most important outside Of
New York, st. Louis. and the big mar
kets. and' buyers from some of the big
gest houses were busy all day yesterday.
and very busy too. in looking over the
goods. Just how many thousands OF
dollars the sale will run into will not he
known until all the furs have been
graded. but the sum will be a large one
Some Idea of the value OF the product
Of the woods of Vermont and northern
New York can be CLEANED when it is
stated that yesterday more than 10000
skunk skins were looked over. The
buyers usually allot to one of their num-
Der the task Of looking over each line
Of furs and grading IT, The price which
number one skunk skin has been bring
ing is up as high AZ 500, but the mar
ket is Off at present and a reduction
OF 800 OH such skin may result. The
furs are divided into four grades and il
the skin has a white peit or In prime, the
grade IL 10 put into depends wholly on
the amount Of black fur 1t contains. The
blacker Ii Is the better the grade. When
the pelt Is of color or blue il is usually
placed In one lower grade than it other
wise would be. The furs at the plant
Yesterday ran very good and were about
evenly divided into the four grades.
The fur men do business on a big scale
and those who are trusted with fortunes
to invest In furs are some of the keenest
In the country. Everything was bust
ness at the plant yesterday and one
buyer was selected by his rivals to go
through the entire l0,0OO skins and grade
them. This he did in much the same
manner that mail clerk sorts mail. His
opinion is generally accepted, but the
other buyers sit around and look over
the furs to some extent.
The value Of the skunk skins alone at
the plant yesterday probably would run
between $4,000 and $4,000 There is one
of the biggest chances in the world to
lose fortune in the speculation.
This sale from the Rendering plant to
the big buyers Ia one more toward the
fur coat or whatever the fur goes into,
but it will be next winter before the little
animal that in life is given a wide berth
gets into first-class society. The fur
must be tanned and will lie in store
rooms In different parts of the country
until next fall. Then the skunk will go
to serve useful purpose in keeping the
edges OF ladies' dresses warm and other
things. His fur is not made up into
coats much. for It would be too heavy
Another big item which was offered
for sale yesterday was fox skin. More
than LOCO Of these are on hand and they
are of excellent quality. These are
graded In the same manner but the
difference is mainly in the size, that is
OF course. II the skin is prime. The diff
ference in this respect Is the same in all
the furs. and they go down one grade if
they are not The fox skins will bring
more money than almost anything else
at the plant. for the Rendering company
has paid as high as 500 for some Of them
Coon skins are much more numerous
at the plant than would be supposed,
and more than 800 Of these are gathered
there. These will bring a pretty good
price for the main reason that there IL
now a big demand for coon skin coats
The mink displayed yesterday we're
practically all number ones and there
were several hundred of these. The
muskrats probably numbered more than
1900 and will bring between s1.oO and sl5O
each. These usually are bought at a
fat price and In big lots. Then, in addi-
ton to these. there are ermine and other
furs, including few bear skins. Alto
gether, they mount into healthy for
tune.
The method adopted in Burlington in
conducting the sale is different from
that In New York and the other markets.
Here the buyers look over the furs to
their hearts content and then buy what
they want instead Of bidding on differ
emit lots. The company can refuse any
or all offers. The whole thing is one
big speculation and careful judgment
has to be exercised TO make the differ
ence between a fortune and bankruptcy
The company may lose lot Of money in
buying from the trappers and the big
fellows down the country may lose a
lot of money, for furs can climb up and
down in price as fast as anything in the
world and they are on a dealers hands
long enough so that plenty of oppcrtu-
nifty is given them to do this. The men
whose judgment is backed by hundreds
Of thousands of dollars in buying the
furs are therefore always of the kind
that hold their jobs on their merits.
The Burlington company holds three
such sales in winter. One was held in
December. but that was small and only
about $4,000 changed hands. The last
of the three will be held in April and
probably will be as large as this one,
when the stock will be brought down
pretty low.