BREEDING SILVER FOXSKINS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 94, 28 April 1913, Page 3

BREEDING SILVER FOXSKINS.

Not long ago (says an English exchange) a silver fox skin (blue-black , sprinkled with silvery hairs) sold in London for £540, and within a few weeks it had been sold again for £590, while others averaged £SOO apiece abroad. The skins vary very greatly in quality, and it has been estimated that only one in every 500,000 killed in the wilds is pure (Silver black, demanded by fashion and wealth. From the north of Canada comes an average of but five perfect skins a year. Such facts as these lend great importance to the breeding of silver foxes as an industry which began 20 years or so ago, and has developed greatly since then. When three firms had come into existence, and with skins selling at £3OO and £4OO a-piece, endeavor was made to keep the business secret. Since then it has increased very considerably, and there are no fewer than 115 ranchos upon Prince Edward Island, containing from one to ten pairs each. One of the large ranches was recently sold to a Russian noble, with six pairs of breeding foxes, the price paid being 100,000 dollars. On the island the foxse are enclosed in wire netting pens 15 feet square, and from 10 to 15 feet high. The daily average of food is for a fox a quarter of a pound of meat, a small handful of table scraps, and a pint of skimmed milk.