Questions and Answers.
As we are asked certain questions so often we are pleased to give below
answers to those most frequently received:
"=What is The Best Way For Me to Start Raising Skunks for Fur?=" Start
with a few and increase the number as you can care for them. Dig out or
capture a couple of litters this spring. Mate the males of one litter
with the females of the other litter. There are usually eight to ten
young in a litter. The old skunks mate about March 1st and the young are
born about May 1st. Never inbreed; that is, do not mate related animals.
Furs are becoming scarcer and prices are continually advancing. Those
who start early in this industry will make the most money.
"=How Can I Breed For Black Skunks?=" Each year save your largest and
blackest skunks to breed from. Market the skins of all the rest when
prime. Be always on the lookout for blacker specimens, especially males.
You can mate one black male to four or five females and even if the
females are not entirely black there will be a good percentage of black
among the young.
"=What Should I Feed Skunks?=" Skunks in confinement will eat meat of
any kind, bread, milk, whether sweet or sour, many sweet fruits, green
corn and some other vegetables. Table leavings from hotels, waste from
slaughter-houses, dead farm stock or dead chickens are all eaten readily
and take the place of the beetles, grubs and mice which the skunk lives
on when free. Do not give decayed food. Supply fresh water regularly.
"=I Live in Town; Can I keep Skunks Without The Scent Disturbing My
Neighbors?=" Yes. You can remove the scent sacs from your animals. This
is very easy to do and the skunks do not mind it at all. They do not
lose a meal. After the scent sacs are removed they can never scent
again. Your neighbors will not know you are raising skunks unless you
tell them.
"=How Long Does it Take to Remove The Scent Sacs?=" With a little
practice you can remove the scent sacs and make a skunk forever
scentless in four or five minutes, or at the rate of 75 to 100 skunks
per day.
"=Does Any of The Scent Fluid Escape When Removing The Scent Sacs?=" Not
with our method. With proper instruments you can remove the scent sacs
completely without spilling a drop of the scent fluid.
"=How Can a Skunk Be Tamed?=" The skunk is naturally gentle and not much
afraid of people. When the scent sacs have been removed from a young
skunk it will be found at once quite tame and may be carried about in
your arms like a kitten. If it is handled frequently it will grow up
very tame, will come when called and will eat from the hand.
"=Are The Scent Sacs The Same in Both Sexes?=" Yes, they are the same in
both sexes. They open into the rectum and are not related in any way to
the reproductive or urinary systems. The scent fluid is not the urine as
many people imagine.
"=What Do You Pay For Black Skunks?=" We pay from $5 to $15 each for
grade AAA according to time of year, locality and size. The scent sacs
must be removed. We pay express charges on all skunks which we buy. If
you have any choice specimens you wish to sell write us full description
and we will gladly make you quotation. We want 500 skunk now.
"=What is The Best Age For Removing The Scent Sacs?=" This work can be
done at any age easily unless the skunk is very fat. We strongly
recommend that you begin on young skunks in the spring, any time after
the eyes are open. The young skunks are easily weaned. They readily take
milk or bread and milk and do not need the mother. Do not let them run
with old skunk.
"=What Kind of Fencing Do I Need For Skunks?=" Poultry netting 2 to 3
feet in the ground and 6 feet above ground makes the cheapest fence. To
prevent climbing out make at the top an over-hang of netting 12 or 18
inches wide or place a strip of tin about 18 inches wide on the inside
of the fence near the top to make it smooth and slippery. The netting
should be 1½-inch mesh for the main yard (for adults) and 1-inch mesh
for the breeding pens. The best fencing is made from galvanized tin or
galvanized iron, in our opinion. Read chapter on "Enclosures."
"=How do you grade Skunk?=" Personally I think the eastern assortment
best; which is as follows:
"Eastern Assortment. The average size, ordinary color of fur, prime or
unprime pelt is considered, then graded to No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4
grade. On skunk for illustration: the short shoulder stripe is graded as
No. 1 when prime and full size, the object of this assortment is as few
grades as possible, prices quoted will not permit of as high quotations
as firms quoting Western Assortment, but will figure equally as much if
not more, in dollars and cents."
The Western Assortment is as follows:
"Western Assortment. Each pelt is graded to its individual value, first
color, then size, primeness, etc., as high as thirty grades are used;
skunk for instance is graded for black, short narrow and broad, then as
to size and shade and color, etc., each commanding a different value. A
firm using this assortment can quote most any price if they desire and
have their goods just as cheap, if not cheaper, than those using eastern
assortment only."
"=Where can I sell skunk grease and what does it sell at?=" There is a
small demand for animal oils and grease, but the markets shift from
point to point. You will have to get in touch with these markets through
drug stores and doctors who know addresses of chemists and dealers in
drugs. There are many by-products of the trap line which trappers should
study, to see if they could not work them into commercial lines. Animal
oils are one of these by-products. I think that skunk oil, under a fancy
name, scented with a little musk or perfume, would find ready sale for
chapped hands, sunburn, etc. These oils are usually wasted now. There
is an opening for a dealer in animal oils if he knows the users.
"=When is the best time to trap Skunk?=" In cold weather, when
fur-bearers den up and hibernate, trappers smoke out more animals in one
day than they can take in traps in a month; besides, they get prime fur
worth the most money. Still we do not advocate this method. They should
be captured alive for breeding purposes.
"=What do you consider a good scent for skunk?=" Anise oil, as a rule,
is best for skunks. Apples are good skunk bait and meats also are good.
"=Can you tell me the best method of removing skunks from their dens?="
It depends on the den. Dig 'em outs, who use shovels, or dynamite, or
crowbars, destroy the dens. There are bellows and smoke blowers for
smoking out the occupants of dens, and the makers would tell you the
best ways. However, as a sporting and financial proposition, you would
better get your skunks by straight trapping or snaring, instead of
killing off whole families as you would do raiding dens. When you track
a skunk to its hole, use the smoker, but don't hog the fur. Leave
breeding stock for another year.
"=Is it advisable to flesh and scrape skunk hides down to white skin
before hanging up to dry? Can you tell me why dealers do not want fur
hides salted, say, salted slightly, and if any, what detriment it is to
them?=" The clean skin is best. All fat and flesh should be removed,
care being taken not to break into the skin, nor should the skin be
"worked" or drawn too much, in the process. Of course, skins may be
cleaned on the boards. The salt dries the skin and hardens it, making it
brittle and likely to crack. Its action on the skin is not neutralized,
as in the tanning processes by other chemicals. Even a little salt
changes the skin, absorbing the moisture and changing the chemical
constituents of the hide. The best way to preserve fur skins--salt is
simply to prevent decay--is to clean the skins carefully and stretch on
frames or boards, and hang them in a cool, dry, sheltered place where
rodents and insects cannot get them. Of course, pelts should not be left
too long on the stretchers--a few days--and too much care cannot be
taken of them.
"=Does it spoil fur keeping it through the summer if kept moth proof and
in a cool place?=" Not if it is properly dried and protected from moths.
Some of my friends keep their late catches of fur in perfectly tight
paper bags, with tobacco, holding them over for the early winter or
before-the-London-sales prices. A big slump in the fur market is often
met this way on certain kinds of fur by trappers, but the fur must be
properly dried and carefully stored away from insects, mice, etc.
"=Will it do to breed to the same male continually?=" We do not advise
it. Young stock from foreign pens should be constantly added to improve
the grade. In breeding should be avoided.
"=How can live Skunks be shipped?=" If the scent sacs have been removed
you can ship a skunk by express in a box with wire netting over the
opening. If the distance is great, supply plenty of dog biscuit or dry
bread and a dish for milk. Mark on box, "Please give milk and water." If
the weather is cold make a nest of straw in one end of box.
"=Can I make any money by removing the scent sacs from Skunks?=" Yes,
you should be able to sell the first skunk you operate on, even if
striped, for at least $5 to someone who would like it as a pet or as a
curiosity. A tame skunk will draw big crowds when placed in a store
window for advertising purposes. Amusement Parks are glad to get them.
Money can be made by selling tame skunks or by operating for other
people.
"=What diseases are common to the skunk?=" They are practically a
diseaseless animal. True they are troubled with lice when kept too
closely confined and fed too much spoiled meat. Any common poultry
powder which will destroy poultry lice will destroy skunk lice. Change
dens and allow the animal to burrow in gravelly earth. Meat diet
sometimes causes scurvy. This can be avoided by feeding a variety of
foods.
"=How do you prevent infection after removing the scent sac?=" First
wash the parts with a weak carbolic solution taking care not to allow
the solution to enter the rectum, or better still paint the glands with
iodine before operating. Rub over the incision a composition of
turpentine and lard. This will repel flies.
"=What do you do with the young after weaning?=" We allow the female to
range, and also the young, but in separate pens. Do not make the mistake
of allowing the young ones to range with aged males until they are able
to protect themselves from injury.
INSTRUMENTS WITH WHICH TO REMOVE SCENT SACS
So many persons have written us to know if we handle instruments
suitable to perform the operation of removing the scent sac, that we
have consented to make a selection.
The proper instruments are as follows:
1 nickel plated scalpel (knife).
1 nickel plated tenaculum (hook).
1 nickel plated sound probe (probe).
1 pair nickel plated special extracting forceps.
1 pair nickel plated automatic clamping forceps.
2 pair goggles (worn only by beginners as safeguard
against scent fluid unexpectedly entering
the eyes).
These tools are of a high grade of steel and nickel plated to guard
against rust. A very handy and desirable set of instruments. One set (as
above) packed securely in box, sent by prepaid parcels post for only
$3.00. The most satisfactory set of instruments on the market. Your
order solicited.
=References: Exchange Bank of Spencer.=
THE LAYMON FUR FARM CO.
SPENCER INDIANA
[Illustration: PEN OF WHITE RUNNERS AS BRED AND RAISED BY JOHN F.
CRANE, SPENCER, INDIANA.
If you want to start right, with foundation stock, or eggs from as
good as there is in the country, write me--same prices at all times
for stock and eggs--134 acres devoted to raising poultry, fruit and
ponies--Breeder of White Indian Runners, Fawn and White Runners--
White Wyandottes and Barred Rocks. Write me.
JOHN F. CRANE, Box A1, SPENCER, IND.]
WANTED
500 Live Skunk
We are in the market for 500 AAA skunk, males and females for breeding
purposes. We pay as high as $15.00 for altered, unmaimed stars. Write us
what you have.
We also handle skunk pelts, Eastern grading, and highest prices paid for
prime stock. Let your dealer quote, then you will understand how much
better we can do for you.
Write first. We pay express charges.
Reference: Exchange Bank of Spencer.
The Laymon Fur Farm Co.
SPENCER INDIANA
What a big Money King says about
OPPORTUNITY
"It isn't the want of opportunities, nowadays, for making a man wealthy,
but it is his =recognizing= an opportunity when he meets it in the
middle of the road in the middle of the day."
He is right. Paste =that= fact on your memory now. I know from
experience.
And if you are a business or professional man or woman, or working on a
salary and desire to increase your earning power with the least outlay
of capital and with the least effort, look this skunk proposition
squarely in the face.
And look at it from the viewpoint of good common business sense. It is a
clean, legitimate proposition--a real money-making opportunity right "in
the middle of the road in the middle of the day."
Why Not Start
a Skunk Farm?
WE WOULD BE GLAD TO HELP YOU
End of Project Gutenberg's Fur Farming For Profit, by Hermon Basil Laymon