Sometimes an island can be used for a farm even when it has opposite shores or islands within two hundred feet or less, provided the water surrounding it has an average depth of from four to six feet. In such a case, the walls inclosing the island should be built in the water at a distance of fifty or one hundred feet from its shores. Sheets of metal should be used, as previously described, by placing them upright in the water and nailing them together with strips running along the outside. It is not essential that the lower wall should be in the ground or even touching it; posts can be driven in the ground to strengthen the wall, or to support it entirely.
A Mink Farm Made Out of an Island. The Water Surrounding Has a Uniform Depth of Five Feet.
In a small farm where minks are in close captivity and have to be fed, the old ones used for the purpose of stocking it will at first do considerable digging near the walls. They will dig into loose earth to a depth ranging from a few inches to three feet in their attempts to liberate themselves. But they will cease to dig after they have been in captivity for about four months. Those born in a farm will not dig or try to get out. They will climb, however, to a height of fifteen feet on reclining trees or on bushes, and for this reason all trees, bushes and pieces of lumber should be removed from the inside of the walls before any minks are turned loose in a farm. They will ordinarily jump to a height of four feet. They can climb wooden walls as swiftly as a cat, or any wall made of soft material.
Disturbed in Her Sleep. Notice the Bushy Tail.
The [following sketch] shows the very best mink farm that can be made. It requires a rectangular piece of land of five or ten acres, running along and separated by a large bayou in the swamps of Louisiana. Covering this land there should be the necessary trees, shrubbery and grasses. The walls are built along the bayou about one hundred feet from the middle, and extend underground to a depth of six feet. The walls at the ends of the farm where they cross the bayou should be very carefully constructed. At these places where the walls cross the bayou should have a depth of at least twelve feet or more, so that the walls can be made to extend nine feet below the water surface for one-third the width of the stream and still have sufficient openings below the walls to permit the water to flow through freely. For example, if the bayou is fifty feet wide, fifteen feet of the wall crossing it can be elevated so that there will be a large-enough opening below for the water to flow. The remaining portion of the wall (that lying near the shore) should be driven in the ground for about one foot, as minks will not dig under water. A farm of five acres, similar to the one just described, would cost, completed, approximately eight hundred dollars. The minks in such a farm, owing to the continuous change of water in the bayou, would always have an abundance of food. The banks of the bayou would afford a natural breeding-place, as minks usually burrow in the banks of small streams or along canals and have their young near the water. If the water in the bayou falls, wire netting could be used over the opening at the ends below the walls.