OCR Text |
Show . . . . "A Protected Industry." Canton, O., Letter. This is McKinley's home and the protected skunk industry is developing under the working of his famous tariff bill. On a farm near the small town of Dell Roy, a mining hamlet about twenty miles from this city. James Scott is engaged in an industry that has excited the sense of smell throughout through-out the entire county. Around one of his largest fields Farmer Scott built a tight board fence ten feet in height. AVhithin the enclosure he placed numerous logs, hollow and solid. Then by a great deal of hunting by himself and his neighbors he has gathered a lot of skunks. He now has a hundred. Advertisements Advertise-ments of reward for the animals alive and uninjured arc bringing many more. ' The animals quickly become inured to ! their confinement. They dig holes in the ' ground. They show a decided inclination to make this county their permanent abode. They arc easily "tamed. They allow their captors to pet and fondle them. AVhethcr they'd allow Mr. McKinley to do so is not known. The skunk is valuable for his fur and hide, the coat being of a white tint and quite smooth, and when properly handled linds a ready market with the furriers, who use it on the inside of ladies' cloaks. - AVhat do they cat? A butcher shop near by has a large supply of bones and clippings that is thrown into the inclosure every evening even-ing and is quickly carried away by the rapacious rap-acious little animals. ; Mr. Scott is so well pleased with his experiment ex-periment that he is about to start another farm at a point near town. Another ad- ' vantage of the new farm will be that it will occupy a wood or grove, and thus the snunk will be more than ever in his element, and therefore less liable to want to escape. |