Smyrna times., 1926-11-03
WILBERT RAHLEY OF LEIPS|C
MAKES MUSKRAT LAND DEAL
JOINS WITH E. H. BURNS OF ST.
MFCHAELS IN BUYING MARSHES
Several Muskrat Lands of Dorchester
County, Maryland, Comprising g.
500 Acres Included in the Deal

Several Muskrat Lands of Dorchester
County, Maryland, Comprising g.
500 Acres Included in the Deal
One of the largest transfers of fur
producing properties in America is
assured by the purchase of the fam
Gus Seward Muskrat Lands of Dor
chester County, Md, by Eastern Shore
Furs, Inc, a Delaware corporation in
which Wilbert Rawley of Leipsic, and
other prominent fur men of Delaware
and the Eastern Shore of Maryland
are interested. The properties are
nationally known and are often refer
red to by New York merchants as
we'll as our local fur operators. These
marsh lands consist of $500 acres of
the most productive muskrat lands in
the United States and Canada, and it
is reported, involves an outlay of a
! quarter of million dollars. The East
ern Shore Furs, Inc, is a company
recently formed for the purpose of
propagating and dealing in muskrats
The company not only has acquired
the Seward marsh lands but has pur-
SAieAoSu AAAAAC elllu IDS OPI1OuS OIl
10000 acres of additional marsh
lands. The President of the new cor
poration is Ernest H. Burns of ST..
Michaels, Md, who for many years
has been the largest operator in black
muskrats in America. The Vice Pres
ident is Wilbert Rawley of Leipsic,
Delaware, the largest individual own
II, Il, -, g
Delaware. Mr.. RaWley owns 10000
acres of muskrat lands. Associated
with these men are other fur men
who own large tracts of marsh as
we'll as business men who are very
active along other lines. The COM
pany plans on increasing the produc-
tivity of its lands by using methods
which have proven most effective in
practice. The directors have expert
mental data, showing that it is pos
sible to increase the production three
fold by proper care of the marshes.
The fur output has even been
doubled in one year. The muskrat
business in the last ten years has
grown to phenomenal proportions.
Muskrat fur is now acknowledged to
be the backbone Of the fur business.
Millions of dollars worth of these
skins are sold annually. Hudson Seal
that wonderful fur that is no univer-
sally admired is the result of con-
version of the brown muskrat skin
into seal. 1t is also often sold as
"river mink" or "ondotra mink" Very
attractive prices are often received by
the garment makers when sold as
sables. The highest price for muskrat
skins, however, is paid for the black
skin which has beautiful, soft, black
lustre and is used in its natural color.
These skins sold at a recent New
York auction for 1925 per skin. The
Seward lands which this Eastern
Shore Fur Company has purchased,
produces annually about 10000 Of
these black skins out of a total pro
duction of 10000 skins. The fact,
Dorchester County and the state of
Maryland, where these lands are To-
Gated, produces approximately so per-
cent of the black muskrats produced
in the United States. By virtue of
the fact that this company is located
in the very center of what the U. S.
Department of Agriculture says is
probably the most highly developed
muskrat section, makes it very prob
able that it will be the largest pro-
ducing muskrat company in existence.
Not only does it control and own an
immense acreage but its lands have
produced abundantly for years. The
outgrowth of this tremendous
business brings out some very inter
esting facts. For instance, most of
us do not know that one of the very
lucrative by-products of this fur bus
iness is the sale of muskrat or''marsh
rabbit" meat. Muskrat meat sold last
year in Baltimore at $500 per dozen. |
The meat has a wonderful, wild game |
flavor and is often likened to that of |
wild duck. 1t is in great demand and !
more and more is being considered as
very choice by rich and
poor alike. Muskrats require no feed |
ing. Nature has provided for their |
care by producing annually super
of "three-square," cat-tail |
and other grasses; that they build
their own houses Qittle reed and
mud shacks which resemble to the
careless observer small shocks of
bay); that they raise from three to
five litters year with from three to
eight young in litter; that virtually
the only cost to their production is the
trapping which amounts to Soc per
skin.