CHAPTER XXI.

FOX RANCHES.

It is estimated that at present nearly 50 of the Aleutian Islands have fox ranches, most of which are said to have been successfully managed. Thus far the Government has rented the islands for this purpose at $100 per year. Some years ago the revenue cutter Perry was sent to the Archipelago by the Treasury Department for the express purpose of ascertaining the location of the islands used for fox ranches. The Government's agents were not long in finding out that in several instances the fox raisers had appropriated islands for which they were paying no rental. These persons were brought up with a sharp turn and ordered to pay up or shut up shop.

It seems quite clear that where proper business methods have been followed the ranches, without exception, have succeeded thus far, and will prove immensely valuable in the future. On some of the islands the work has been going on for 12 or 15 years, and three of them now have a fox population of more than 1,000 each. The first method was to begin operations by turning loose on an island several pairs of foxes. In some instances the animals have increased rapidly, with the result that in a year or so it had become apparent that $150 or $200 paid for a pair of mated animals was likely to prove a good investment.

The original project was to breed the silver gray fox, as the fur of this animal is much more valuable than that of the commoner varieties. A good silver gray pelt is worth about $50 to the original seller, while $15 or thereabout is the price for the pelt of the blue fox. But the silver gray has many peculiarities which make its domestication exceedingly difficult, practically impossible, in fact. It is much given to devouring its young, and it has many of the characteristics of the wolf. At present only one of the islands is given up to the silver grays, and the animals do not increase rapidly.

The blue fox, so called, is handled much more successfully. It is readily tamed, and if kindly treated soon becomes so domestic that it will take food from the keeper's hand. The food usually is fish, either cooked or raw, and a mixture of corn meal and tallow. Reynard gets these rations, and all he wants of them, for ten months in the year, the food being supplied steadily except during the two midsummer months. It is estimated that the average cost of the rations is $1.50 per fox per year. There are two or three keepers for each ranch who devote all their time the year around to their charges.

From November 20 to January 20 is the open season for foxes on the islands, and box traps, rather than dead falls or steel traps, are used. This is done because all the female animals are released, after having been marked, and also one male for every six of the opposite sex. The average age for killing is about 18 months, although the pelt of an animal eight months old is fully developed, and, despite some theories to the contrary, the fur does not necessarily improve with age. On some of the larger farms, the box trap method of catching the foxes has been given up, as being too slow, for baiting the animals near a small corral.

During the months preceding the killing time, the food for the foxes is placed near the site of this corral, in order to accustom the animals to coming to that locality, and also in order to tame them. Under this treatment the foxes lose their shyness and shrewdness to such an extent that they not only enter the corral freely, but the female or male which has once been released after having been examined and marked, frequently enters the corral again. It is reported that in some instances the same animal has been caught three or four times in the same night.