Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1920-06-17
Fox Breeding is Profitable.


iope encouraged that they may con-
tinue to wear them (at price, in spite
Of the rapidly diminishing supply or
suitable fur bearing wild animals
may, perhaps, gain a modified comfor;
from the following contributed by a
correspondent to the London Daily
Mail:
"On Prince Edward Island. the
smallest province of the Dominion of
Canada, black foxes are being raised in
captivity, for their fur, with very great
success. Fortunes are being made in
single season, and charter red fox
companies pay dividends OF from 300
to 400 per cent annually.
BLACK foxes have always been on
! the island in a wild state, and about
the year 1900 poor farmer thought Of
securing a pair of black foxes alive
and raising the young ones in captiv-
ity. He had marked success and car
ried on a very profitable business for
nearly 10 years before it leaked out
that he had made a fortune.
Several men then tried it with ster-
ling success; the news became gen
eral, and the country went "fox" mad.
| Live foxes were in such demand that
| options were taken on unborn pups,
and in 1913 prices ranged from f2,4O0
to 5000 a pair One proved pair Of
breeders was sold for 1900 the high
est price ever paid.
"Now, in 1920, the industry has de-
veloped in different lines. Live foxes
are not bringing as much as pelts are.
The worlds supply of fur is growing
smaller each year. Russia is out Of
the market, the Great West Of Canada
and the United States are being settled
and depleted of wild fur-bearinp ami
mails, and fur buyers are turning to
Prince Edward Island to supply their
ever-increasing demands.
"One usually pictures a ranch as 4
place OF hundreds of acres in extent.
out model fox ranch covers only
ABOUT three acres of woodland, the
whole Enclosed within a lO-foot fence
OF boards on the north and west sides
and fine mesh wire on the south and
east.
TO the causal observer the wire
looks like ordinary chicken wire. bur
1t Is really much stronger, as fox
can easily bite through ordinary
chicken wire.
Foxes are great burrowers: so 10
prevent them from digging themselves
our trench is dug about two feet
oeep and two feet wide, and wire is
lad along the bottom and UP the side
and the trench refilled with earth
mis- forms a safe fence, because for
es always start to dig at the foot of an
obstruction, and in so doing come unon
the wire buried in the bottom of tbe
trench.
I'm each pen there is a small house
and inside this a large box which
serves as the den, to which a curved
runaway or chute gives the foxes adj
mittance. In this den the YOUNG are
born, and the mother does nor arou,
them out until they are about three
weeks old. During that time the
rancher must wait in patience and not
attempt to find out how many puns
nave been born, for if alarmed or dis
turoed the mother fox kills her young.
during the pup season no one is al
lowed near the ranch except the ranch
er. When the puppies are about a
month old they are quite tame to the
rancher, but on the approach Of
stranger they will rush to their hid
ing places.
The profits in the industry are as
founding but when it is reckoned that
a female fox produces litter of from
four to eight pups each year. and con-
tlnues to do so for about eight years,
It is easily seen how foxes companies
pay their huge dividends"