Animals: Fur Week

To thousands of fur dealers, dressers, dyers, manufacturers, retailers and their employes throughout the land last week was National Fur Week. They did their best through Press, radio, cinema, window displays and fashion shows to make the rest of the U. S. aware of fur. anxious to own some. Warmish weather handicapped them in New York and other sections, but by the end of the week they felt they were off to a prosperous season. Fur men had other reasons for feeling cheerful last week.* They had begun 1933 with three bleak years behind them. Both manufacturers and retailers had swung into the year with stocks low. Trappers, discouraged by low prices, had cut down their output. U. S. women seemed possessed of an endless ability to make their old coats last one more year. In February sales of pelts to manufacturers and retailers had reached an all-time low of $1,408,000. Then came an upswing. In May pelt sales were $3,288,000, biggest month’s total since October 1931. Road salesmen’s summer orders were up 25% to 50%, August retail sales up 50% to 100% from 1932. Rising sharply since June, prices of raw furs last week showed an average gain of some 20%. With fashion strongly in their favor, manufacturers and retailers were prepared for an autumn & winter trade which might reach 75% of fat 1929’s. All this was good news to some 3,000 fur farmers in the U. S., 1,500 in Canada. This month began their season for pelting and shipping, cashing in on their year’s work. Non-existent at the turn of the century, fur farms now supply about 20% of all raw furs on U. S. and Canadian markets. From farms come 98% of silver fox pelts. Farming of other furbearers is still largely experimental. But mink farms, of which there are now several hundred in the U. S. and Canada, are this year beginning to rank as steady and important sources of supply.

Mink fur, dark brown, deep, silky, lustrous, rates with silver fox as most popular all-round fur. It takes 75 to 100 pelts. which now average $5 to $20 apiece, to make a coat. With so rich a market in prospect, farmers have been trying to breed and raise mink for more than a decade. It has taken them that long to learn how. Not until this year have pen-raised pelts approached trapped pelts in quality.

The mink is a long-bodied, short-legged, arch-backed member of the weasel family which likes nothing better than a fight. Minks fight each other, kill and eat almost any bird, fish or non-carnivorous beast smaller than themselves, some larger. In captivity they are clean, hardy, except for an occasional chirp almost noiseless. They need one meal a day, chiefly meat and fish. They like to swim but can do without it. Almost any country place where autumn weather is brisk will do for a mink farm.

Minks with finest fur are in Labrador, Quebec and northeastern New England. A pair of breeding minks descended from their stock costs about $300. But breeders who try to start with one pair are apt to be disappointed. Female minks are choosy. Experienced breeders advise a minimum investment of about $650, which will buy three females, two males. Better plan, say some, is to begin with $1,000 worth of breeding stock, add $300 to $500 worth during the first three years. Each female mink should produce two to ten kits a year. By the fourth year it is claimed that a successful breeder on this scale should begin making a yearly profit of $2,500 to $3.500.

*But at least 84 individuals, 70 corporations and five labor organizations connected with $100,000,000 of U. S. fur business had no reason whatever to feel cheerful. They were indicted by the Federal Government in a sweeping drive to stamp out racketeering in the fur trade.