FOR THEIR FUR
BY
William André Elfer
FOR SALE BY THE
GESSNER CO.,
611 CANAL ST., NEW ORLEANS, LA.
COPYRIGHTED
BY
W. A. ELFER
1909
Press of J. G. Hauser
"The Legal Printer"
620-622 Poydras St.
New Orleans
PREFACE
his little volume is issued in illustrationof the feasibility ofbreeding minks in Louisiana fortheir fur. It is the result of experimentsconducted by the author himself,and he feels that it should be of interestto many and of value to the few whoare looking for fields for profitable investment.It is the author's aim toissue a more elaborate work on the samesubject sometime during the early partof next year.
W. A. E.
A Louisiana Mink. Notice the Small Eyes, and the Low,Rounded Ears, Scarcely Projecting Beyondthe Adjacent Fur.
or the following description ofthe American mink I am indebtedto the EncyclopædiaBritannica:
"In size it much resembles the Englishpolecat—the length of the head and body beingusually from fifteen to eighteen inches; that ofthe tail to the end of the hair about nine inches.The female is considerably smaller than themale. The tail is bushy, but tapering at theend. The ears are small, low, rounded, andscarcely project beyond the adjacent fur. Thepelage consists of a dense, soft, matted under-fur,mixed with long, stiff, lustrous hairs on allparts of the body and tail. The gloss is greateston the upper parts; on the tail the bristlyhairs predominate. Northern specimens havethe finest and most glistening pelage; in those[Pg 8]from the southern regions there is less differencebetween the under- and over-fur, and thewhole pelage is coarser and harsher. In color,different specimens present a considerablerange of variation, but the animal is ordinarilyof a rich, dark brown, scarcely or not paler belowthan on the general upper parts; but theback is usually the darkest, and the tail is near