knew that
statements he might make later on would be skeptically received by many
people who had never dreamed that any species of furs were so valuable
that young pups could be worth more than their weight in gold.

That the boy reader of this story may also stock up with information
that will better enable him to understand what enterprising Obed Grimes
was trying to do on a small scale, I am tempted to give the main items
in this newspaper article, every word of which is said to be literally
true.

Since this account was first printed some years ago, other farms along
similar lines have been started away up near Calgary, in the Canadian
Province of Alberta, and are said to be doing excellently, one ranch
near Midnapore reporting a start with twelve pair, and the pack now
counting thirty-seven in all.

But here is the main part of the clipping, well worth reading:

There is something novel about a ranch which consists of spaces
covering 150 feet of ground. Chappell, now president of the Sydney
Chamber of Commerce, Nova Scotia, owns seventy pairs of silver black
foxes, and his ranch is split up into small inclosures of that size,
covered with wire on four sides, the wire being buried four feet under
ground, attached to a concrete base, and turned in several feet. The
silver black fox tries to root its way to freedom, and this is the way
the breeder prevents his escape.

When the foxes mate we also mate a pair of black cats of the ordinary
domestic variety. As soon as the young are born, we take the fox pups
away from the mother fox, and the kittens away from the mother cat, and
make the cat foster-mother to the fox cubs. In this way we are able to
rear a more domesticated breed of foxes.

For twenty years this business of raising foxes of the silver black
species was really kept under cover, because of its great possibilities
for making big money. With the last four or five years the business has
become organized, and today many millions of dollars are invested in it.

The last lot of animals slaughtered was in 1910. There were forty-three
pelts sent to London at that time. They brought as high as $3,800, the
average fetching $1,500. Silver black fox is the rarest fur utilized by
man. The Russian sable, otter, and South Sea seal are practically
eliminated for commercial purposes, due to international laws which
prohibit the killing of these animals for the next ten or fifteen years,
so as to give them a chance