Some points in muskrat-farming are related by a Vermont man
in the _New England Homestead_ as his own experience. Some
years ago he dammed a small brook on his farm for the purpose
of making a trout-pond. The muskrats, however, speedily took
possession of it and made it their home, from which they
organized forays into the farmer’s corn-field. This suggested a
way of getting even. The next year he enlarged his dam, making
a shallow pond covering four acres of marsh-land of no use for
crops. The rats appreciated the enlarged accommodations and also
the marginal corn crop which he planted for their sustenance,
and did not suspect the wire traps set for them when the water
should be drawn off.
After a couple of seasons he considered the quarry sufficiently
mature to test results. The water was drawn off and the game
was caught in the netting. A hundred of the largest and
darkest of the captives were returned to the pond for breeding
purposes, while more than four hundred were put under tribute
of their pelts. The result was more than enough to pay for the
construction and labor, and he expects a much larger return
of better fur next year. Hundreds of New England farms have
brook-fed marshes that could be utilized to equal advantage.
The fur market is a rising one; more in proportion, perhaps,
for cheap furs than for the more expensive. The trolley and
automobile have increased the demand enormously. The people who
buy rich furs are constantly becoming more numerous, and they
have their imitators among the many who can afford only the
lower grades.--Boston _Transcript_.
(2531)
=Prognosis, Cure in=--See WOUNDS, CURIOUS.