Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo17amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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552 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL inces owe their start on the road to prosperity. Today the business of fur trading- is an important factor of our commerce. North American furs annually mar- keted in the United States and England have an approximate value of sixty million dollars. Although the Euro- pean war has decreased the demand to vance of the farmer, they are followed into almost inaccessible regions by the trapper, who is urged on by the stimu- lus of high prices. It is evident, there- fore, that the demand for furs before many years will exceed the supply, un- less this supply can be increased by artificial propagation. To meet these conditions a new in-
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The mink was one of the first fur bearers to be douiestic-ated, and was propagated successfully in the state of New York fifty years ago. If taken young it is tamed easily, but owing to its capricious temper it becomes dangerous to handle as it grows old some extent, exports from the United States alone during the fiscal year ended June 30, 191G, amounted to more than nine million dollars. A glance at the market reports dealing with furs and giving figures showing the actual num- ber of skins handled will surprise the ordinary consumer, and at the same time cause wonder that there should be a fur-bearing animal still in existence. As a matter of fact the number of fur bearers is steadily decreasing. Driven farther into the wilderness bv the ad- dustry is springing up—that of fur farming, or the raising of fur-bear- ing animals ^ in captivity. Generally speaking, fur-bearing animals are easily domesticated. All our domestic ani- mals were once in a wild state, and there is every reason to believe that ' Pur-bearing animals in the stricter sense of the term belong to the families of carnivores — the Mustelida?, Canidiv and UrsidcP, which embrace the weasels, martens, sables, badgers, skunks, wolverenes, otters, sea otters, foxes, wolves, and bears; and the families of rodents which include beavers, muskrats, squirrels, and marmots. In a broader sense the term applies to all animals which yield pelts used in the preparation of marketable furs.

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