The Nome nugget., 1924-12-06
FOX FARMING ON
 SEWARD PENINSULA

Within the twelvemonth a new industry looms high on the hori-
 zon of Seward Peninsula. Not
 alone to one section has this i'm dustry made itself felt but it's golden rays of promise extend all the way from St. Michael to Kot- zebue.
 Looking forward to permanent settlement of this Seward Pennin- sula with permanent incomes to sustain this settlement, fox farm ing appears to supply the answer. T. promises to dovetail into the steadily growing reindeer industry and to convert into big money the hitherto wasted offal and other by products incidental to the slaughter oi reindeer. It promises further to utilize at high profit our vast schools of herring, our several var ieties of salmon, our lowly but numerous tomcod. our white whale and our seal
 Percy Blatchford of Shismaref was the pioneer. Blatchford cap tured several pairs of white fox tbree years ago and from them has developed a well-organized ranch with a dozen or more pair of breeding white fox today. All the nf nj Blatchfords but he has persevered and demonstrated beyond doubt the feasibility of raising white fox in captivity. This last spring one or his females gave birth to a lit ter of fourteen pups. thirteen of which he succeeded in raising. An even larger litter is recorded at Igloo where Jimmy Okaleasak, working under permit, dug out a white fox mother with fifteen young all of which grew to maturity
 There are two ways of going i'm to the fox business One way is to secure a permit from the Sec retary if Agriculture to capture alive his breeding stock. This permit may be had by writing to the Chief of the Biological Survey at Washington, D. C., and the ap- plication should state the circum- stances of the applicant. the To- cation if his proposed ranch and his intentions. The application should also state definite number Of foxes to be captured Five or ten pairs is usually enough for a beginner. The permit costs noth- ing but each fur farmer is required to pay an annual license of ten dollars
 The other way of launching into fox farming is to buy breeding fox es from ranchers. This way costs a great deal more money but off- CTS speedier returns. Instead of raising white foxes to sell at poss- ibly forty dollars this method all lows of raising blue foxes to sell at more than a hundred dollars each. Instead of reds pelting at twenty dollars this method produces sill vers at two hundred or more each. It costs no more to raise blue fox than a white: no more to raise silver than a red. This method is the one employed by George Goshaw who accom- plished a notable piece of work in transferring 51 pairs of blue foxes from the Aleutian Islands to Shis- maref without the loss of single ! animal
 High grade guaranteed breeders cost on the average of five or six hundred the pair for blue fox and from one to two thousand dollars pair for silver foxes.
 f We have received information that one or two more large invest ors are planning to locate on Sew ard Peninsula. Perhaps of more interest to the ordinary man is that more than dozen permits have been issued to residents here abouts within the last six months to capture live wild foxes for prop ogating purposes.
 The infant industry is already developing into lusty child with every prospect of becoming hus- ky, rich young fellow in decade.