MUSKRAT Farming in Marsh Areas Becomes a Profitable Industry

Many persons now living can remember the good old days of muskrat trapping, when in early youth they made a good profit in selling the skins for as little as 15 to 25 cents apiece. Now muskrat pelts have advanced practically tenfold in price, the carcasses are sold as meat for as much as the pelts formerly brought, and the annual catch in the United States has reached the 14,000,000 mark. The earliest use for muskrat fur was in the manufacture of an excellent imitation of beaver hats. Modern fur dressers and dyers now imitate also many of the more costly furs with that of the muskrat. This practice, together with the multiplicity of designs decreed by fashion for women’s apparel, has created a continuous demand for the pelts.

The increased demand and the rise in prices for pelts have developed the industry of muskrat farming. The value of the skins warrants commercial attempts to produce muskrats on large preserves and justifies efforts to prevent poaching. Many of the marsh areas bordering on the Great Lakes and the tidewater marshes of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Louisiana, and some of the more desirable inland marsh areas in the northern tier of States that formerly were considered useless, are now being utilized for muskrat farming. Because of the increased value of furs, these areas are yielding steady and profitable returns and when sold bring more than do adjacent cultivated lands.

The chief requirements in muskrat farming are to maintain a food supply for the animals and to guard against depleting their numbers by too close trapping. In some localities muskrats are kept on definite premises by the erection of suitable fences (fig. 171), and these also aid in preventing poaching and lessening depredations by natural enemies.

Muskrats multiply rapidly. Their aquatic retreats and general habits assist them in protecting themselves. Though injurious to crops in some localities, muskrats generally inhabit places unsuited to agriculture. The areas adapted to the needs of muskrats are extensive in many States, and doubtless suitable marshland could be utilized for the industry in some sections where the animals do not now occur. As trapping is done in winter, muskrat farming appeals especially to farm men and boys. The commercial importance of the muskrat makes it desirable to conserve the marshlands in which it is found naturally. Owners of such areas should manage them intelligently so that a fair annual profit may be made while a sufficient stock of breeding animals is left for propagation.