They are not much given to digging and the wire need not be buried very deep in the earth. If the ground is solid, 18 inches will be deep enough. The animals, if properly fed, watered and cared for, will soon become accustomed to their quarters, and make little or no effort to escape. The young will become tame and quite playful. The natural home of the opossum can be described as south of a line drawn west from New York City through Pennsylvania, Northern Ohio and Indiana, south of Chicago, through Iowa near Des Moines, and into Nebraska near Omaha, extending about half way into Nebraska, then South through Kansas, all of Oklahoma and the lowlands or the Eastern half of Texas. The opossum is not a cold weather animal, and in its wild state would freeze if it inhabited territory much farther north than the northern boundary of the line shown. A severe winter a few years ago, is said to have frozen large numbers in their dens in Southern Ohio, Pennsylvania, and parts of West Virginia, Indiana and Illinois. In their natural or wild state, they often hole up in shallow dens, old logs, trees, etc., and while they are endowed with the instinct of "playing 'possum" when injured, their instinct along other lines seems very shallow, as they do not always know enough to "get in out of the cold;" in other words, on the approach of severe winter weather, they do not all seek deep dens where the ground does not freeze. While the natural home of the opossum is in the section as outlined, there is no reason why they cannot be successfully raised hundreds of miles north of their northern limit. The thing to guard against will be freezing. The raiser must see that they have good and deep burrows--deep enough that the ground will never freeze to their nest. They should have plenty of leaves in their nest. If the enclosure is in a thicket, and there are trees within and leaves near, the animals will no doubt carry an abundance of leaves into their dens for nests. If there are no trees in the enclosure, see that a supply is furnished each den before freezing weather in the Fall. The opossum is going to become one of the important animals in fur-farming for various reasons: They are prolific breeders, bringing forth from 6 to 12 at a litter; grow rapidly; are easily fed and eat a great variety of food. [Illustration: Ideal Spot for an Opossum or Raccoon Fur Farm.]