A Young Female Mink Walking Along the Walls of a Small Farm.
The [following photograph] shows a small pentagonal farm, the walls of which are made with sheets of corrugated, galvanized iron. Each side measures sixteen feet in length, extending four feet underground and four feet aboveground. Wire netting is used to cover the farm, not to prevent the minks from jumping over, although the walls are too low, but to prevent chickens, cats and buzzards from entering and eating the food put in for the minks. A wooden shed also covers a part of the small farm and serves to keep out some of the rain and heat, there being no shrubs or trees therein. There are two small troughs in the ground for holding water, and in the center of the farm there is a place for the minks to live during the day, which consists of boards laid five inches above the surface of the ground with about fourteen inches of dirt on top. Under these boards it is dark during the day and always damp and cool. There are also several barrels in this farm filled with corn shucks and hay for the minks to enter during cold weather. The minks in this little farm are fed with the spleen of cattle, different meats, crayfish and other small fishes. The cost of this farm, or pen, which has been used for experimental purposes only, amounts to approximately forty-two dollars. It is large enough to raise two hundred minks if they are properly fed and cared for.
A Small Mink Farm.
Part of Interior of Small Farm, Showing Boards With Dirt on Top for the Minks to Live Under During the Day.