nine square feet for one pup and sixteen square feet for two, were attached to a shed that was divided into rooms. Each pen had a den for the expectant mother. A guard fence with wire overhead surrounded the shed and pens and a guard house was built in a location that provided good visability into the pens. Foxes were cunning animals. They feined injury or illness if they detected someone watching them. The foxes were moved from one pen to another or from one ranch to another in carrying pens. These had a wooden frame made with soft wood and covered with chicken wire on all sides, but the top was wood or steel. Wire was placed on the bottom as well for sanitary reasons.24 A pair of silver foxes brought up to $26,000.00 at the height of the industry, but when the breeders started selling their breeding stock off the Island the price dropped. Eventually the price dropped so low that the ranches were abandoned and gradually disappeared from the farms. No one in North Tryon is now raising foxes, although the Canadian Silver Fox Breeders Association still has approximately 360 members.25

The Hatchery

Frances Roberts’ Memories

With the war over it was time to leave the big city and get back to the place next to paradise. I had longed for the time when I could stand in the center of a twenty acre field and not be pushed, squeezed, rushed, or crowded by another human. So in 1951, Chuck and I returned to my childhood home in North Tryon, Prince Edward Island.

The relaxed life on the Island was a welcome change for a while, but to find something to do other than being a housewife now became an issue. My attention turned to farming and pigs captured my interest. So with a few renovations to the barn I was in the swine business.

My pigs did well and I enjoyed my new vocation, but the weight of sixty to one hundred pound porkers proved to be too much for the floor structure of my barn. I was now faced with a major reconstruction project if I wished to keep such large animals. I felt obliged to become involved with a lighter species of animal life.

24