Laws Relating to Fur-bearing Animals, 1918 A Summary of Laws in the United States, Canada, and Newfoundland, Relating to Trapping, Open Seasons, Propagation, and Bounties

"In the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917 the foreign trade of the United States in raw and manufactured furs reached nearly, if not fully, the high level of years preceding the war. The imports were valued at $21,553,375, while the exports amounted to $15,729,160, a sum exceeded in only one previous year, 1913 when they were $28,389,586. Home manufacture and utilization of American furs has grown enormously since the beginning of the war. The large export trade of the past year shows, therefore, a production of pelts of unprecedented value, in spite of the fact that the actual number of skins collected must have been less than in previous years. Many former trappers were more profitably employed in other industries, and many were deterred from plying their vocation by the increased restrictions on trapping, especially the costly nonresident licenses. Trapping restrictions properly enforced and limiting the taking of fur to prescribed seasons will result not only in conserving the fur supply but in greatly increasing the quality and value of the annual catch." -- p.2