MONEY IN MINK FARMING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20603, 30 June 1930, Page 5

MONEY IN MINK FARMING.

NEW CANADIAN INDUSTRY. PROFITS OF BREEDERS. [from our own correspondent. ] VANCOUVER, May 28. An Englishman came to Vancouver three years ago and invested £l4O in mink-breeding on tho slopes of North Vancouver, lialf an hour by road or ferry from tho General Post Office. Ilis business is now worth £,3200. Five years ago ;i French-Canadian fisherman found a female mink in his boat on Lesser Slave Lake, Alberto. lie captured hor, and with a pair ho got from Prince Edward Island ho started breeding. His "outfit" is now worth £4OOO and he has lost interest in fish, except as food for his furry charges. Tho mink, in its wild state, is now being hunted so relentlessly in view of high prices, that it is in danger of becoming extinct. Tho Hudson's Bay Company has therefore asked its 200 trading posts in the North to encourage minkbreeding. The company plans in five years to get an annual harvest of 60,000 skins. Thus this new industry of mink-breed-ing may bo followed in tho great open spaces or tho backyards of city dwellings. Germany, Norway, Sweden, Franco and Britain, in that order, arc sending orders in increasing volume. The industry requires comparatively littlo space. A building 24ft, squaro, with three tiers, will house 36 of tho animals, each with ft pen, 10ft. by 4ft., to itself. Tho mink arc so combativo that they must bo kept apart. But they are very clean. The cost of food is low! 4oz. a day is enough to keep a mink in good condition. I?aw fish is tho basis of the diet. Pelts bring from £4 to £2O; an extra fino ono brings £IOO on tho New York market.