Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1896 — Raising Muskrats for Profit. [ARTICLE]

Raising Muskrats for Profit.

Back of Afton, Va., in the mountains there lives a queer old man, who is a born trapper and hunter. He owns a little farm at the foot of the ridge, on which he raises.corn and other produce, but it is chiefly valuable to him because it has a number of running brooks which furnish homes for myriads of the little fur-bearing animals, the musquash, better known as the muskrat. The trapper carefully protects the little animals, and will allow no trespassing on his preserves. He has fenced off, in many places, wet spots in the swaley meadows, so' the rats can build their nests undisturbed by the poacher or neighboring dogs. His furs he carefully cures and markets in person to Staunton for the Northern trade, which pays well for good skins.