Show MONEY IN FOX FARNI maine man finds animals can be easily raised pelt palts always in demand at good prices Price how rearing of reynard it Is managed by a type ty biml down easter bangor me ate elijah norton of dover finds foxes a more profitable crop than potatoes or bay and so he long ago quit planting and hoeing and mowing and la Is now devoting hie his en tiro tire attention to raising the ebarp oyed eyed and bushy tailed h 1 ie animals whose whoso fur in in great demand always and everywhere when norton began raising foxes it waa was an experiment now be he hae has the business biml nesa fully relied on a highly profitable basis and bla his tunny sunny hillside farm on the bank ot of the la to known as the beat best paying piece of land in maine the norton fox farm la in not tho the first in maine for foxes had been buches fully bred by a man on heron island boothbay Hooth bay harbor years before the dover enterprise was wa thought of when norton got ready to go into the fox business he visited the heron island farm and one on prince edward laland island in the gulf of st lawrence to get joints and also to buy some bleeding stock then he started in to beat the original fox farmers and he hae has succeeded heine an cd od hunter and knowing the ways ot of foxes norton at the out set led the fret that to be healthy and thus profitable bis his stork must be contented and to laaure insure this happy condition conditi ot ho he eo so constructed and arranged bla his inclosure a as to dispel the be idea of captivity which foxes cannot endure he ile built a fence 16 feet high of a heavy and specially pec lally woven wire J X Q I 1 ona on of mr norton nortons red foxe foxes to 0 o keep the foxes in and to keep other animals out six in Inclosure closures a thua thus formed cover about one and a halt acres of ground and in each of them iff Is a kennel knel built of wood end zet ct deep deer nto the earth serving ss as a nursery and as a den for the foxes totes in winter at first a f fow of 1 0 the foxes escaped bv burrowing zw down n under the fence bitt but norton stopped this by carrying the wire down from tour four to eight feet to the solid ledge the whole farm has been allowed to grow up with rank grass and weede weeds so that it resembles resemble a the native haunts of the fox in the wildwood and nortons block stock does not seem to realize that it la Is living in captivity on the farm are common red foxes from the woods of maine blaine blue foxes from alaska silver grays from prince edward island and blacks from ohio tho the rede rods are the commonest and least valued of foxes blues are worth more but the sliver silver grays and the blick are the aristocrats As an a matter of fact the black and the sliver silver gray are the earne same breed a silver gray being a black with a sprinkling of gray hairs the black fox pelt Is among the moat most valuable of furs lure aln one e specimens frequently bringing t to 0 while in several instances ae as high ae an 1000 to 1200 has been paid norton had not be in long in the business when he made the important diat overy that it Is possible to reproduce black and silver gray folea naturalists say ay that these rare specimens are simply freaks of nature b being liable to app r among the corn com mond reds at any time while their progeny is more than likely to wear the plebeian red coat norton h has As discovered ho however weier that by inbreed ing it Is pou possible sible in the course of tine time to eliminate the red and product the genuine black variety he bought an ohio black fox paying for it and this ho he bred with a common maine red then bred their progeny together and so on thus far he has met with flattering success and be he feels confident that bin success will continue last year lie ie sold i a pair of black foxes bred on his farm for and now vow has a family of four which he values at 1000 i the foxes are fed with scraps of meat bread milk and the like and are all in good health in simmer s time they need to be watered at ered but in winter they quench their thirst with enaw ihen norton wants to one of bla foxes he simply pokes his bin hand band down into a burrow to which bich shelter the flee when any one approaches and pulla pulls the animal out much as ono one would take an apple out of a bag alt all of hia his 35 33 foxes seem to know him as doge know their roaster master and at feed ing time they frolic about him like so many kittens the beauties of the co colony lony ore are a pair of twin blacks now ten weeks old coal black with ahe ex gooon of snowy white at the tips of choir tails fat fluff fluffy r and ae as play it as eitens |