The skunk, mink and muskrat do well in settled sections. There is always a cash market for raw furs and since the discovery of America, raw furs have been an important article of commerce. An industry paying the hunter and trapper probably $15,000,000 yearly is one that should receive attention. The demand for furs is increasing as the population of the world is becoming more and more. Again furs are being put to more uses than ever. While the demand for furs is increasing, what of the supply? The day, perhaps is not far in the distance when the demand will call for two or three times as many furs as today. Where are they to come from, if not from fur farming?
A well known fur dealer in Minneapolis sizes up the situation in a nut-shell:
"Under proper conditions, with intelligent care, raising fur animals can be made to pay. The raiser starting on a small scale and increasing as their knowledge increases. Most all successful business is built up by starting small."
Conda J. Ham, in the Hunter-Trader-Trapper Magazine, says:
"Did you ever stop to seriously think where your furs and your fur coats would come from twenty or thirty years from now? At the rate fur-bearing animals are being killed off at the present time, there would not be fur enough thirty years from now to properly clothe the nobility of the old world, to say nothing of our American women who must have their new furs each season, and the others who must have at least one or two sets during a lifetime. The fur industry is admittedly fast dying a violent death. Some other remedy than those already prescribed must be discovered. We still have sections of the country where the same wild state of nature exists that could have been found three hundred years ago. We still have plenty of fur-bearing animals to keep alive their species if proper conditions prevailed. Therefore, it would seem that the problem to solve is, how can these conditions be best secured.
"Mr. Norman A. Wood, expert taxidermist in the University of Michigan's museum, the man most familiar with the animal life within the state and one of the greatest authorities on animal life in the whole Northwest, declares the fur industry can be saved only through the medium of great fur farms. His study of the situation has convinced him that the commercial growing of fur is coming to be one of the great industries of America.
"In various parts of the country such farms are to be found, and the profit derived from them has been sufficient to prove the success of the venture. Skunk farms have been started in various parts of the United States within the past few years and are proving paying enterprises.
"It is no vague dream that prompts one to speak of fur farming. The signs of the times point that way, indisputably. Every year the price of raw furs bounds up to hitherto unknown levels, the demand is constantly increasing almost as fast as the supply diminishes, and with it having been demonstrated that fur-bearing animals can be raised, men are not going to let such chances slip by."
A. R. Harding, editorially in the same magazine says, speaking of fur farming:
"The business surely looks like a "gold mine" at present prices of fur and breeding stock. Even should prices be reduced by one-half or more the business bids to continue very profitable.