LOUISIANA CONSERVATION REVIEW 
 
 
August, 1931 
 
 
The Louisiana Muskrat Industry 
 
 
T HROUGH the courtesy of the 
     Louisiana conservation de-         FREI 
     partment the writer was per- 
mitted to make an investigation of the muskrat 
industry in the coastal marshes of Louisiana. 
   The purpose of this investigation was to de- 
termine the value of the different types of 
marshland from the standpoint of muskrat pro- 
duction on an 
 
 
acreage basis. 
   T h e fact 
that Louisiana 
claimed to pro- 
duce so many 
more m u s k- 
rats per acre 
than any other 
state, was the 
principal rea- 
son for making 
practical tests 
along those 
lines. 
   To one well 
familiar with 
the production 
records in 
northern 
 
 
sLtates, the r~ec- 
o r d s o f so    The Louisiana muskrat, whose pelt 
m u c h larger                  to the trappers 
 
 
is Wo 
of th 
 
 
catches per 
acre in Louisiana are almost unbelievable. 
   The muskrat marshes of Louisiana are iso- 
lated from the northern states that produce the 
northern muskrat furs, and I was anxious to 
make this investigation in Louisiana as I am 
thoroughly familiar with the muskrat industry 
in the north. My home being at Sturgis, Michi- 
gan, where I own one of the largest and best 
equipped muskrat farms in that state. 
   I have made investigations of marsh lands 
for many companies and individuals in practic- 
ally every northern state that produces muskrat 
furs, also in Ontario, Canada, having been widely 
known through the muskrat breeders associations 
of these states. I am certain that I have made 
more investigations of muskrat projects than any 
man in the United States, but I do not mean this 
in a bragging way, as it has proven very un- 
profitable, but I wanted to make it clear that what 
I am about to say of the muskrat industry in 
Louisiana is not to flatter Louisiana because I 
 
 
              expect to concentrate my future 
OARS          efforts here, but that the forego- 
              ing conclusions and comparisons 
 were carefully made, by one who has dropped 
 some money into other muskrat projects that 
 were made to look too good through the reports 
 of some too optimistic investigators. 
    Only a very few years ago it was generally 
                                conceded 
 
 
by most of the 
authors for fur 
trade publica- 
tions that the 
northern 
states such as 
Mi n e s o t a, 
W i s c on s in, 
and Michigan 
would be the 
largest 
producers o f 
furs from reg- 
ulated     fur 
farms. This 
has held true 
in the fox in- 
dustry but, 
during the last 
 
 
-Photograph by Vernon Bailey 
rth approximately five million dollars  lions of dollars 
e State annually,               have been in- 
                                vested there in 
 the muskrat business that today represent only a 
 "bad investment," most of which will have to be 
 charged to experience. 
    Little was actually known about the muskrat 
 then, and the public mind was oversold on musk- 
 rat farming. Too little was known about the 
 actual production and diseases of muskrats to 
 warrant the expenditure of such large sums of 
 money. The results of such prospective ventures 
 did look very promising on paper, and made a 
 fertile field for many promotion schemes, in addi- 
 tion to hundreds of "bona fide" muskrat ranches, 
 scattered throughout all the northern states. 
    One important thing that Louisiana has, that 
 could these northern states avail themselves 
 of, would save a large portion of their "bad in- 
 vestment," that is climate. 
    Climate affects the production of muskrats 
 in so many ways, that the northern states cannot 
 compete with Louisiana in producing muskrat 
 
 
20 
 
 
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