The Times of Friday, November 10th, published from its agricultural
correspondent a fascinating account of an English venture in fur-farming on Dartmoor. There are similar enterprises in Northumberland and Ross- shire, but there is no other so far south as Devonshire. A beginning has been made with sixty-six black skunks, which the correspondent says seemed to be thoroughly at home. Most of them were bred in Northumberland, but some have been imported from Canada and the United States. The first thing the skunks did on their arrival was to exterminate all the rabbits. They made a clean sweep in twenty-four hours. They then set to work upon the mice and beetles. They found so much food, indeed, that they had not much appetite for the usual provided meals. In this Devonshire farm the name of skunk, " so odious in its application," is being deprived of its most sinister significance, as a simple and harmless operation deprives the animals of their power to use their " nauseous artillery." It is said that when the skunk has been thus treated it is " tamer than its better known relatives." We fancy, however, that many Americans and Canadians would read this with surprise, as the skunk in its natural state is distinctly less shy than the other members of the weasel species.
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