Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1912 — MONEY MADE IN FOX FARMING [ARTICLE]

MONEY MADE IN FOX FARMING

Most Profitable of All, Says Agrlcultursl Official—diking Are Worth SIO,OOO. Washington.—Fox farming is probably the most profitable agricultural industry In the world. This was what J. Walter Jones of this department of agriculture told the American Breeders’ association here. At the suggestion of Secretary of Agriculture Wilson Mr. Jones made an Investigation of the fox farms of Canada, where a practical monopoly of the business now is enjoyed, with the idea of trying to interest some Americans in the work. ’ Natural black fox sets sell at from $2,00 to SIO,OOO a set, Mr. Jones said. Next year’s expected crop of pups already haß been sold for $6,000 a pair. “The Increasing scarcity of costly furfe,” he declared, “and the greatly increased demand make the significance of breeding in captivity the more important It is probable* that within a year or two the breeders will be rearing mink, marten, otters, and -heavers. Skill such as only a trapper or a cioae of nature can achieve ‘is "necessary in the successful breeding of the shy and nervous reynard. “The so-called black fox is the skin of the timber wolf of Kamchatka, the half-wild dog of Manchuria, or cheap American fox dyed black. Only a few dozen genuine black foxes have been caught yearly, and most of them have gone to the nobility of Europe, prin-. cipally those of Russia and Austria.”