f the darkies for "coon." Most snakes are better eating
than eels and not near so repulsive--when you get used to them.

The woodchuck is a nuisance to the farmer, covering his field with
loads of subsoil from the burrow and then eating the tender sprouts;
and the farmer does not know enough to eat his tender corpse, but he
is good to eat. If a rabbit and a chicken could have young, it would
taste like a woodchuck.

Muskrats, mink, raccoons, and gray and fox squirrels are easily
trapped; and the skins of those killed in that way find a steady
market. Skins of poisoned animals do not sell so well, as they are
rough and dry.

In order to be profitable, these do not need to pay very well in
proportion to the time they take, since they are hunted as
recreation and at odd times.

But there is a larger field in raising wild animals, which our
Western people have not been slow to avail themselves of, and we
hear of men being prosecuted for breeding wolves, coyotes, and
bobcats, a kind of lynx, to get the government bounty for the snouts
or scalps.

In a legitimate way profit may be had from such animals.

Ernest Thompson Seton has an article in _Country Life in America,_
on raising fur-bearing animals for profit; this offers a good
chance for small capital and large intelligence. He suggests the
beaver, mink, otter, skunk, and marten, and says that whoever would
begin fur farming is better off with five acres than with five
hundred. He describes two fox ranches at Dover, Maine. They raise
twenty to forty silver foxes a year, on a little more than half an
acre of land. The silver fox's fur is one of the most valuable on
the market and sells at an average of $150 a pelt, that is, $3000 to
$6000 gross for the year's work. Foxes are not expensive to breed,
their food consisting chiefly of sour milk and cornmeal or flour
made into a cake, and a little meat about once a week.

The capital required is small. A fence for the inclosure should be
of one and a half inch mesh No. 16 galvanized wire, ten feet high,
with an overhang of eighteen inches to keep the foxes from escaping,
and is about the only outlay except for purchase of stock.

Stakes should be driven close to the fence to keep them from
burrowing out.

They are naturally clean animals, and with careful attention are
free from disease. Mr. Stevens reports that in his two years'
experience he has had twenty to thirty foxes and lost none by
disease, while Mr. Norto