Raising Chinchillas For Profit

G. Schwab

Description

This early work is an absorbing read for any chinchilla owner or historian of the breed, but also contains a wealth of information and anecdote that is still useful and practical today. Orientated towards the commercial chinchilla keeper. Extensively illustrated with text and full page photographs. Contents Include: Introduction; Preface; Chinchillas in History and Literature; the Wonders of a Chinchilla Hair; The Chinchilla Language; Housing Equipment; The Feeding of Chinchillas; Breeding and Reproduction; Routine Care of Chinchilla Babies; Chinchilla Diseases and Ailments; Pelting; Individuality of Species; and Where Are We Going?. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 22 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528762670
• Langue: English

Extrait

RAISING CHINCHILLAS for PROFIT
BY
G. R. SCHWAB
Table of Contents
Introduction
Preface
Chinchillas in History and Literature
The Wonders of a Chinchilla Hair
The Chinchilla Language
Housing Equipment
The Nest Box
Whelping Time
Spare Pens
The Feeding of Chinchillas
Green Foods for Chinchillas
Breeding and Reproduction
Care at Whelping Time
Routine Care of Chinchilla Babies
Chinchilla Diseases and Ailments
Pelting
Sanitation
Individuality of Species
Where Are We Going?
Facts and Possibilities

Introduction
An introduction to this volume by one who had studied the chinchilla industry from its earliest beginnings in North America appeared to be necessary from several angles. This qualification, along with a broad knowledge of fur farming throughout the world, seemed to place the job in my path; so I shall attempt to cover, in this introduction, sufficient ground to give the reader an idea of the industry at the time of, and preceding, the writing of this book, and of the various factors then involved in the business of promoting and developing chinchilla raising.
Chinchilla raising in Canada has been struggling for some years to make headway, but for one reason and another has not enjoyed the growth of some branches of fur farming. Part of this may be attributed to the scarcity of the animals and their initial cost.
Because we believe in the future of the industry, based on an ever-popular demand for gray fur and the unique qualities chinchilla fur possesses, we recently undertook to show those unacquainted with the industry, through the articles by Mr. Schwab, that producing chinchilla fur was not an industry remote from mink, fox and other branches of fur farming.
Fur farmers generally have not taken to raising chinchillas as they have other animals-for instance, mutant mink and foxes-even though prices for breeding stock were, in some cases, almost parallel. Many fur farmers, in fact, still look on chinchilla raising as pretty much a venture into the unknown. If they could have seen, as I have, the animals being raised in locations and under circumstances where mink and foxes possibly would not have survived, they perhaps would have changed their minds. My interest dates back preceding present development in chinchilla raising in Canada and the United States when, in 1928, I became interested in a ranch then established in South America. I was President of Northern Rice Lake Fur Farms Limited at the time. An English syndicate was seeking investments in the Canadian fur farming industry, and we, Jack Follansbee and I, (Follansbee was General Manager of Northern Rice Lake) arranged to trade 25% of our personal stock in Northern Rice Lake for an equal value in the syndicate controlled by the English Company with investments in both North and South America. The Bolivian Chinchilla Concessions Limited operated the chinchilla ranch in South America and had the controlling interest (52%) in a world monopoly concession granted by the Bolivian Government.

Memorandum of Association of Consolidated Fur Farms Limited dated at London, England July 31st, 1928.
( A ) The Knockmill Fur Farm. -A valuable Freehold Property, some 100 acres in extent situate at Kingsdown, in the County of Kent.
( B ) The Shrawardine Muskrat Farm. -A Leasehold property of some 50 acres at Shropshire.
( C ) Bolivian Chinchilla Concessions, Limited. -The Controlling interest (52%) in a world monopoly concession granted by The Bolivian Government.
( D ) The Sabellum Trading Company, Limited. -The entire Share Capital.-Which owns seven equipped trading posts in Baffin Bay, Canada, together with motor schooner and other effects.
( E ) The Northern Rice Lake Fur Company, Limited. -A 25% share interest in an established fur farming Company having upwards of 2,000 acres in the famous Rice Lake District of Ontario, Canada.
( F ) The Whitby Plant, Whitby, Ontario, a concentration and scientific breeding centre for musquash, from which breeders will be distributed to the Company s breeding grounds.
The Directors attach considerable importance to the controlling interest which has been secured in the BOLIVIAN CHINCHILLA CONCESSIONS, LIMITED, which Company has been granted by the Bolivian Government the sole and exclusive right to trade in, capture, breed and export Bolivian Chinchilla. The highly lucrative trade in Chinchilla skins was arrested some fifteen years ago by an embargo which the Bolivian Government placed upon the export of skins in an endeavour to prevent these valuable animals from becoming extinct. The Concession, constituting a world monopoly of this exceptionally valuable pelt, is for a period of 25 years, during which time the Company enjoys free use of lands is exempt from every form of Government and Municipal taxation and is granted protection of the breeding centres against clandestine hunters and contrabandism.
The Company s interests in the Dominion of Canada consist of seven equipped trading posts with sub-stations in Baffin Land, under the designation of THE SABELLUM TRADING COMPANY, LIMITED, which are established for the purpose of trading in White Foxes and other Arctic peltries and products. The assets of the Company include motor schooner, coasting vessel, 12 boats for walrus and whaling, several houses and other effects.

Thereafter it was my duty as President of Northern Rice Lake to go to New York each year, where I met the English officers along with representatives of the Bolivian Government, also the men who were operating the chinchilla concessions in South America, to establish ways and means of propagating the animals and of developing the industry; also, of course, to find out from the men from South America exactly what was being done. We were dropping the animals 2,000 feet a year, with the idea of later moving them to Canada, and were gradually acclimatizing them to the Canadian weather conditions. The secretary of the chinchilla company, however, decided he wanted to get rich quickly, so he absconded with $85,000.00 - and we gave up chinchilla raising for the time being. However, this is now past history, and we ll let the dead bury the dead . . . .
One of my chief worries has been to draw a line between legitimate livestock raising (and selling) and high promotion in the industry, for I long ago learned that anything published in Fur Trade Journal is pretty well taken for granted. The fact, for instance, that we were publishing certain articles dealing with chinchilla raising, or other animals, may easily be misconstrued to an endorsement of the industry and its various ramifications, which is not necessarily true. It is difficult to draw a line of demarkation between the various phases; the development of an industry from the standpoint of producing fine stock successfully cannot be altogether separated from the phase of livestock selling likely to follow, and naturally we cannot be responsible for the schemes worked out by those with a bent more towards high-pressure selling than fine livestock raising.
Our job, we felt, was to tell the public the facts about the industry; how simply the animals could be raised, how to raise them, and to banish the mystery more or less surrounding them previous to the last few years. We saw Hal Brown raising the animals in his attic, and when G. R. Schwab suggested giving the industry publicity, we investigated his methods and saw that he was raising fine animals successfully in his cellar. Early systems of chinchilla raising were much different to the systems we have to-day, as changes have been made all down the years since Chapman first brought the animals to North America.
The early ranches established in Canada were elaborate and expensive, usually being air-conditioned, which was a handicap to the industry right at the start from the standpoint of making the industry of general interest. It was my job to consider Mr. Schwab s system of raising, from the standpoint of production, condition of animals on the ranch, as well as quality of animals produced-the latter not, of course, being altogether dependent on the location. In each instance I found that the record of the Schwab herd of chinchillas compared favourably with the information I had on any other ranches and was much better than some.
One large rancher suggested that the articles written by Mr. Schwab, for instance, those on pens, were not particularly helpful to large ranchers, their system being quite different. We felt that the over-all information conveyed by the series of articles was the kind of information necessary for the beginner to have in starting out, and while large ranches may have their own special methods, the important consideration was to make available to the novice who knew nothing about the industry the fundamentals of raising. If he were successful and his ranch grew, he would learn during the growing period the larger aspects of the industry necessary as he went along.
Still another rancher explained that the system of feeding greens recommended was not good. I venture to say that the methods of feeding employed on the various ranches in Canada and the United States are as wide apart as the ranches themselves. We have to judge over a period of years the results produced by any given system-and let the results be the sole guide of the future use of that system. As we stated before, Mr. Schwab s feeding system has produced good results. As the health of the animals, their regular production and the quality of the fur produced are the direct result of the food consumed, we felt quite satisfied with the general ration recommended.
To go back again to the selling of breeding stock when appeals were made to the gen