Just now, coon cats, tortoise-shell cats, and bizarre colors of Persian cats are mostly in vogue, but the tailless Manx cat, and even freaks like the six-toed cat and Iynx cats always find a ready market.

Of course, these can be raised in the city, but if it is done in a large enough way to make a living out of it, the Board of Health and the neighbors will raise—­something else.

Fishing and hunting are primitive industries of which we think only in connection with wild land.  But every bay and pond and wood will supply at least some subsistence or profit to the intelligent seeker.

Oysters, clams, crabs, mussels, frogs, and common fish are found in abundance in many places, and help out with table expenses.  Even English sparrows are delicious.

Almost any wild animal is much more wholesome to eat than pork.  Squirrels and even weasels are cleaner feeders than pigs, and the Indians eat them with great relish, while everybody knows the keenness of the darkies for “coon.”  Most snakes are better eating than eels and not near so repulsive—­when you get used to them.

The woodchuck is a nuisance to the farmer, covering his field with loads of subsoil from the burrow and then eating the tender sprouts; and the farmer does not know enough to eat his tender corpse, but he is good to eat.  If a rabbit and a chicken could have young, it would taste like a woodchuck

Muskrats, mink, raccoons, and gray and fox squirrels are easily trapped; and the skins of those killed in that way find a steady market.  Skins of poisoned animals do not sell so well, as they are rough and dry.

In order to be profitable, these do not need to pay very well in proportion to the time they take, since they are hunted as recreation and at odd times.

But there is a larger field in raising wild animals, which our Western people have not been slow to avail themselves of, and we hear of men being prosecuted for breeding wolves, coyotes, and bobcats, a kind of lynx, to get the government bounty for the snouts or scalps.

In a legitimate way profit may be had from such animals.

Ernest Thompson Seton has an article in Country Life in America, on raising fur-bearing animals for profit; this offers a good chance for small capital and large intelligence.  He suggests the beaver, mink, otter, skunk, and marten, and says that whoever would begin fur farming is better off with five acres than with five hundred.  He describes two fox ranches at Dover, Maine.  They raise twenty to forty silver foxes a year, on a little more than half an acre of land.  The silver fox’s fur is one of the most valuable on the market and sells at an average of $150 a pelt, that is, $3000 to $6000 gross for the year’s work.  Foxes are not expensive to breed, their food consisting chiefly of sour milk and cornmeal or flour made into a cake, and a little meat about once a week.

The capital required is small.  A fence for the inclosure should be of one and a half inch mesh No. 16 galvanized wire, ten feet high, with an overhang of eighteen inches to keep the foxes from escaping, and is about the only outlay except for purchase of stock.