



Produced by Tom Cosmas and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)









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