n, with five years' experience, carrying
thirty to forty, reports that one to two die each year.

They breed as well in captivity as in their wild state, usually
bringing forth a litter of six or seven in the spring. These breed
the following spring and their fur is ready for market the following
December. And now breeders sell fine stock to other breeders who are
entering the industry, sometimes getting three to four hundred
dollars per pair. Mr. Seton remarks, "I am satisfied that any man
who has made a success of hens can make a success of foxes, with
this advantage for the latter a fox requires no more space or care
than a hen, but is worth twenty times as much, and so gives a chance
for returns twenty times as large."

This is an infant industry, but if others can get the same results,
it will pay handsomely. To get the best furs, however, requires a
district where the winters are cold and long.

There are a few skunk farms in the West. It is said that the scent
gland can be taken out, though that is not necessary, and that the
farms do well. Their oil is also said to be valuable. But while
skunks are so common there cannot be much in breeding them.

If your fancy goes to "critters" rather than crops it is much better
to raise game birds. Wild turkeys raised under a hen or in an
incubator and made pretty tame (if too tame they do not thrive so
well in a small area), "wild" ducks, grouse, partridges, quails,
even wood ducks which build their nests in trees are no longer
experiments.

All the common enemies you have to contend against are foxes, dogs,
cats, rats, mink, skunks, hawks, owls, crows, frogs, turtles,
snakes, poachers, game legislators, and disease.

It has been calculated that one pair of quails and its
progeny would produce five or six million birds in eight years if
there were no losses. But so would chickens; and probably you will
not get that many.

All about these game birds is set forth in an advertising booklet
called, "Game Farming" of the Hercules Powder Co., which has offices
in a dozen cities, so we need not enlarge.

CHAPTER XVII

WHERE TO GO

Intensive cultivation, raising a big crop on little land, can be
carried on most profitably near areas of dense population; for
perishable products, like fruits and vegetables, can be best
marketed near the consumer. The limit for delivery by auto is about
fifteen to twenty miles, and then only if roads are good; if the
land select