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Breeding Minks in Louisiana

FOR THEIR FUR


A Profitable Industry


[Illustration]


BY

WILLIAM ANDRE ELFER


FOR SALE BY THE
GESSNER CO.,
611 CANAL ST., NEW ORLEANS, LA.


COPYRIGHTED
BY
W. A. ELFER
1909


Press of J. G. Hauser
"The Legal Printer"
620-622 Poydras St.
New Orleans




PREFACE


This little volume is issued in illustration of the feasibility of
breeding minks in Louisiana for their fur. It is the result of
experiments conducted by the author himself, and he feels that it
should be of interest to many and of value to the few who are looking
for fields for profitable investment. It is the author's aim to issue
a more elaborate work on the same subject sometime during the early
part of next year.

W. A. E.

[Illustration: A Louisiana Mink. Notice the Small Eyes, and the Low,
Rounded Ears, Scarcely Projecting Beyond the Adjacent Fur.]


For the following description of the American mink I am indebted to
the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

     "In size it much resembles the English polecat--the length of the
     head and body being usually from fifteen to eighteen inches; that
     of the tail to the end of the hair about nine inches. The female is
     considerably smaller than the male. The tail is bushy, but tapering
     at the end. The ears are small, low, rounded, and scarcely project
     beyond the adjacent fur. The pelage consists of a dense, soft,
     matted under-fur, mixed with long, stiff, lustrous hairs on all
     parts of the body and tail. The gloss is greatest on the upper
     parts; on the tail the bristly hairs predominate. Northern
     specimens have the finest and most glistening pelage; in those
     from the southern regions there is less difference between the
     under- and over-fur, and the whole pelage is coarser and harsher.
     In color, different specimens present a considerable range of
     variation, but the animal is ordinarily of a rich, dark brown,
     scarcely or not paler below than on the general upper parts; but
     the back is usually the darkest, and the tail is nearly black. The
     under jaw, from the chin about as far back as the angle of the
     mouth, is generally white. In the European mink the upper lip is
     also white, but, as this occasionally occurs in American specimens,
     it fails as an absolutely distinguishing character. Besides the
     white on the chin, there are often other irregular white patches on
     the under parts of the body. In very rare instances the tail is
     tipped with white. The fur, like that of most of the animals of the
     group to which it belongs, is an important article of commerce."


The fur market has always been a good market. It has grown firmer and
stronger from year to year, while the prices for furs have been
advancing steadily and rapidly with the growing demand for furs in
Europe and America, and with the general increasing scarcity of all
fur-bearing animals. Mink fur advanced about fifty per cent. during
the last two seasons, and there is every reason to believe that the
mink fur in Louisiana will advance to about six dollars within the
coming three years. The minks caught in Louisiana last season were
sold at an average price of three dollars.

[Illustration: Resting in a Warm Place. Notice the Long Body
and Its Shape.]

[Illustration: In a Position to Jump. Notice the Long Tail.]


Fur-bearing animals are becoming scarce where they were once so
plentiful, and, like the buffaloes that roamed this country in such
great numbers, they will soon, many of them, become extinct if the
present rate of trapping continues to obtain in America. Already
certain fur animals are almost trapped out and are rare. Even the
alligator, which was so plentiful a few years ago in the swamps of
Louisiana, is hardly sought after any more for its hide because of its
scarcity.

The laws enacted by the various State legislatures for the protection
of fur-bearing animals, in fact, offer no protection; for most furs
caught out of season have no market value, and for that reason are not
caught.

In Louisiana a trapper has to procure a hunting license if he wishes
to carry a gun while trapping, which license costs only one dollar and
is good for one season only. Such a low license, while it may bring a
large revenue to the State, clearly has no element of protection in
it. On the contrary, it is a truth that it stimulates both hunting and
trapping, as there were more trappers in Louisiana last season than
before the law requiring this license came into effect. Every trapper
procures a hunting license whether he carries a gun or not, and most
trappers believe the law requires them to have this license to trap.

Whatever is being done for the protection of fur-bearing animals in
Louisiana, the fact remains that they are fast disappearing. Old and
experienced trappers will tell you that minks were very difficult to
trap last season as compared with the seasons of a few years ago, when
they could be so easily trapped in dead-falls. Raccoons, too, which
were so numerous in the rear of old cornfields during the trapping
seasons, have diminished at a surprising rate within the last three
years.

[Illustration: A Female of Two Years.]

While laws are being adopted by different States for the regulation of
trapping to protect fur-bearing animals, it is time for those who
expect to make money with fur in the future to begin raising their own
animals. The time is almost here when trapping