CIVET CAT should be cased and stretched on boards fur side in. When dry remove boards and leave fur side in. RING TAIL CATS should be cased and after removing boards are generally left fur side in for market. WILD CAT are cased and stretched on boards. They may be turned fur out or left as taken from the stretchers, fur side in. HOUSE CAT are cased and stretched on boards fur side in. They are sent to market usually fur side in. RABBITS are cased fur in and, as the pelt is thin, soon dry. They are shipped fur side in. PANTHER are treated much the same as bear. Care should be taken in skinning to leave claws, ears, nose, etc., on the skin for mounting purposes. * * * My experience has been that the house which makes only four grades of prime goods is the house that you will receive the largest checks from for your collection, writes a Michigan collector of 50 years' experience. So many grades quoted makes it possible for a firm to successfully squelch you a little every time you ship and yet you can have no reasonable excuse to complain for when you ship, you know that in some houses there is a grade for nearly every skin you send. So I, for one, would rather risk the fewer grades. A trapper from Wisconsin says: For sample, say mink are worth from 25 cents to $3.00. There would be 275 prices between the extremes. Now if he is a fur buyer I certainly pity the trappers that would have to take those 275 different prices for their mink. A man should be able to know the difference between grades No. 1, 2, 3 and 4, and when he does he is then able to give a fair and honest price for every skin he buys. If he doesn't know the difference then, he had better get a job clerking in a hotel or sawing wood. * * * Many have requested that the difference in the various grades of skins be explained and for their benefit, as well as others of little experience, the following may prove instructive. Raw furs are assorted into four grades, viz: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4. With the exception of skunk and muskrat most houses subdivide the No. 1 skins into large, medium and small. In addition to this many firms quote a range of prices about as follows: Mink, Northern New York, large $6.00 to $8.00. Would it not be more satisfactory to quote one price only? It is generally known that Minnesota mink are large. From that state a No. 1 medium mink is as large as a No. 1 large from Maine, where mink are rather small. But as the dealers on their price lists quote the various states and sections, why not quote one price only as follows: MINK, NORTHERN NEW YORK, NO. 1. Large, Medium, Small, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, $7.00. $5.00. $3.00 $1.50. $0.75. $0.20 These figures, of course, are only given for illustration and are not meant to show value.