To Tan Sheep Skins.—Sheep skins, which are used for a variety of purposes, such as gloves, book-covers, etc., and which when dyed, are converted into mock Morocco leather, are dressed as follows: They are first to be soaked in water and handled, to separate all impurities, which may be scraped off by a blunt knife on a beam. They are then to be hung up in a close, warm room to putrefy. This putrefaction loosens the wool, and causes the exudation of an oily and slimy matter, all which are to be removed by the knife. The skins are now to be steeped in milk of lime, to harden and thicken; here they remain for 1 month or 6 weeks, according to circumstances, and when taken out, they are to be smoothed on the fleshy side with a sharp knife. They are now to be steeped in a bath of bran and water, where they undergo a partial fermentation, and become thinner in their substance.
The skins, which are now called pelts, are to be immersed in a solution of alum and common salt in water; in the proportion of 120 skins to three pounds of alum and five pounds of salt. They are to be much agitated in this compound saline bath, in order to become firm and tough. From this bath they are to be removed to another, composed of bran and water, where they remain until quite pliant by a slight fermentation. To give their upper surface a gloss, they are to be trodden in a wooden tub, with a solution of yolks of eggs in water, previously well beaten up. When this solution has become transparent, it is a proof that the skins have absorbed the glazing matter. The pelt may now be said to be converted into leather, which is to be drained from moisture, hung upon hooks in a warm apartment to dry, and smoothed over with warm hand-irons.
To Trap Young Mink.—Mink Breeding.—Adult minks are almost untamable, but young ones readily submit to handling, and are easily domesticated. The time to secure young minks is in May and June, when they begin to run with their dams. The streams must be quietly watched for mink trails, and these tracked to the nest.
When they leave the hole the old one may be shot, and the young ones secured, or they may be dug out. Those who own a breeding stock of minks ask high prices for them; but trappers represent to us that it is an easy matter to get the wild young ones. Habits.—A successful breeder says that he does not attempt to tame the wild mink, but only aims to supply for it in a small space all the necessities of its natural instincts. He says the mating season commences about the first of March, and lasts two weeks, never varying much from that date.
The female carries her young about six weeks. In the minkery, where diet, water, temperature, etc., are similar with each animal, there is so little difference in the time of mating and time of bearing young in different animals, that five out of six litters dropped last spring, were born within twelve hours of each other. The young are blind from four to five weeks, but are very active, and playful as kittens. The mother weans them at from eight to ten weeks old. At four weeks the mother begins to feed them meat; this they learn to suck before they have teeth to eat it.
The nests in which the young are born are lined by the mother with some soft material, and are made in the hollow of some old stump, or between the projecting roots of some old tree, and always where it is perfectly dry. The nest is located near pure running water, which the mother visits twice every twenty-four hours. She feeds her young on frogs, fish, birds, mice, crabs, etc., etc. The mink is from birth a pattern of neatness and cleanliness, and as soon as a nest begins to get foul and offensive, she takes one of the young in her mouth, and depositing it in a clean, suitable place, builds a nest about it, and then brings the balance of the litter. She feeds and cares for them until they are three and a half or four months old. When the young are weaned, about the 10th of July, she builds her nest near the water, in which the young soon learn to play. There are usually four in a litter, though the number ranges from two to six. Towards fall the mother separates them into pairs. One pair—or if the number be odd, the odd one—is left in the nest; the other pair or pairs, she places them often half a mile from each other, and then seeks new quarters for herself.
The young soon separate, and each one catches his own frogs, etc. They do not pair, but the male is a sort of rover and free-lover. Minks are unsociable, petulant, vicious in play, savage in war. Late in the fall they establish regular runaways from one stream to another, and usually under brush-fallen trees, weeds swale, and under banks—anywhere, in fact, where they can avoid the sunshine, and escape the chances of observation. The mink is a sure prophet, and just before hard winter begins, he lays by a store of food for the winter in safe places near his winter nests, of which he has several. As the snows fall he burrows under the snow, where he remains until about February, when his supply of food is exhausted, and he is forced to seek further for food.
Management of.—Mink being by nature solitary, wandering creatures, being seldom seen in company except during the breeding season, are, therefore, impossible to be reared successfully, if large numbers are kept constantly together, therefore their inclosure should be a large one.