SKUNK FARMS DO NOT PAY.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 697, 13 October 1909, Page 3

SKUNK FARMS DO NOT PAY.

SbtUXSt t*T an Official Report on the flottjeot to the Secretary of Agriculture. A newspaper story of the profits made by raising skunks for tlieir skins is giving officials of the agricultural department no eiul of trouble. It first bobbed up about a year ago. It set forth that the agricultural depart' ment had been studying skunk culture, artfl had found that the beasts were more profitable than a gold mine. .As a result of the story the department has received many letters of inquiry, says a Washington report.

T. S. Palmer, assistant chief of the biological survey, wants to correct this misapprehension. In a report to Secretary Wilson he says: "Misled by the statements about the rapid increase of skunks and the high prices paid for their skins, many persons seriously considered-the experiment of starting skunk farms. For several years a list has been kept of such farms located in various parts of the country, but so far as can be learned most of them have been abandoned.

"Raising fur-bearing animals for profit is not a new idea. The industry, however, has apparently never advanced beyond the experimental stage, except in the case of the farms for raising the arctic or blue fox, established on certain islands of the coast of Alaska.

Minks and skunks breed rapidly in captivity, but the low price of skins make the profits rather small. Last season the highest market price for prime black skunk skins from the northern states averaged about $1.45 each, but white skins sold as low as 15 to 20 cents apiece. Skins that have much white or which are obtained from the southern states usually bring less than a dollar each, a price that leaves little margin for profit after paying the expenses of raising the animal in captivity."

A Perfect A**. There is nothing so democratic as fair-minded ignorance. It respects person no more than does death. It is being told just now how a member of a certain well-known club in Philadelphia came across a striking example of this. There, had been a theological discussion in the smok-ing-room, and to sustain his argument, this member called one of the library assistants, a fellow, it must be owned, but newly engaged for the place. "Is Justin Martyr in the library?" asked the casuist. 'I don't know, sir," replied the attendant. "I don't think he is a member, but I'll ask the porter." This story sounds somehow as if it were not quite new, but there is another one, truly an old one, about the late Dean Burgon, which is somewhat along the same liiie-s. He caught himself one day when talking of the nature of man as distinct from the lower orders of creation. "Man," he declared, "is a progressive being; the others are stationary. Think, for example, of the ass! Alway6 and everywhere it is the same creature, and you never saw and never will see a more perfect ass than you see at the present moment!"— Philadelphia Press.

Vaeeiaatad Burglar aa« »«<eeti*e*, A burglar walked into an uptown flat'in, New York city one night and began packing up the silverware, TWtf health inspectors who Were vaccinating all occupants of the building happened along and insisted on vaccinating the strange?) who, as they thought, owned the flat. The burglar cheerfully acquiesced, but during the operation the real occupant returned. Two detectives, who then took the stranger into custody, had to submit to vaccination before the inspectors would allow them to leave the Chronicle, j An Undesirable Pla.ee, The worst mosquito-infested neighborhood in the world is the coast of Borneo. The streams of that region are at certain seasons unnavigable because of the clouds of mosquitoes.