Page 127 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

ground bone, eggs, milk, cereals, tomatoes, cod liver oil, and fish. Each
animal must be segregated from his fellows as the mink is a vicious little
beast and will attack any other mink that comes near him. Fighting must be
prevented at all costs, as in addition to possible deaths which may occur, the
pelts may be severely damaged. The mink mates once a year, in the spring,
and the litter consists of about five or six young. The young are born about
fifty days after mating and are hidden by the mother in her nest until they are
about four weeks old. When an excessive litter occurs, the young are raised
by another mother mink or by a cat.

Besides managing two ranches of her own, providing breeding stock for
amateur ranchers and publishing a monthly bulletin on fur trade conditions,
Mrs. Fox owns and edits The Black Fox Magazine and has published a very
practical book by the title of Raising Minks in Captivity.

Goat Dairying—a Coming Business

R

OBERT FEARN , Norbeck, Maryland, is a goat dairyman, and a very
successful one. He seldom raises any kids, as he finds it more economical to
buy new milking stock each fall and sell his culls in the spring. When he
began business he had 125 does for which he paid $10 a head. But he learned
it paid to buy better stock. Now he has about 30 for which he paid from $50
to $75 each. From these 30 does he gets four times as much milk as from the
125 inferior ones. In December and January, he gets about 70 pints daily
from 25 does; in summer, 200 pints. The six- or eight-quart does, so eagerly
sought by the beginner in goat keeping, are of little interest to Mr. Fearn. He
considers a doe, even when she is giving but three pints a day, a profitable
one. Animals which give around six to eight quarts a day are very rare and
are hardly ever for sale. Generally speaking, a production of two quarts a day
is fair, three quarts good, and anything over that, excellent.

The does in Mr. Fearn’s dairy are not permitted to run about as they please.
They must lie down, chew their cuds and make milk. At milking time they go
in groups of ten to the milking room, stand in stanchions and are fed. Great