d in several feet at the top, or that a strip of tin a
couple of feet wide is fastened to the posts some three feet from the
ground.

The "fur-farmer," should the market be low for certain animals, can keep
over; or the better plan would no doubt be to kill off the surplus
males and perhaps some females. At such times do not make the mistake of
killing off too closely, as some will do, claiming that the fur is low
and that there is no need of trying to increase. Nine times in ten, this
is the time to raise as many as possible, for by another season, that
particular article is apt to be in demand.

To illustrate: skunk were low in 1907, yet had the raisers gone ahead,
they would have had a supply to kill during the Winter of 1908-9, at
prices that were indeed satisfactory.

Had the opossum raiser, during the low prices for this fur in 1907 and
1908, sold off his breeding stock at low prices, as he would have been
compelled to do, he would not had a supply when the prices advanced in
January, 1909.

Some farmers make the mistake of selling off all their stock when prices
ease up, expecting to go into the raising again when a reaction takes
place. This is not the way to make the most money; when a reaction
comes, other farmers who have continued raising this certain animal,
reap the harvest, selling to the market or to their neighbors at high
prices.

The prices paid for the various articles shows about what the grower may
expect for his "crop." The demand, of course, will have much to do with
the price. Fashion is constantly changing but indications are that
owing to diminishing supply and increased consumption, prices will be on
a fairly high level always. Trappers and hunters often catch fur too
early and as a consequence have blue pelts which are graded down. In the
spring shedders and rubbed skins are secured which are sold as No. 2 or
lower. With the "fur farmer," there will be no early caught blue skins
or late caught spring and shedders. The animals will be killed when
"prime," and will bring best prices.

Some reports from those that have experimented in a small way at raising
fur animals is to the effect that they do not fur properly. This is true
in regard skunk, when kept in a box or a small enclosure for weeks and
fed largely on meat. The writer when a fur buyer has bought skunk that
had been kept in a "pen" or small enclosure for weeks and in addition to
being thinly furred, the hide was much thicker t