ARMADILLOS BRED ON TEXAS RANCH
One of the most curious industries in existence is conducted by a rancher near Comfort, Texas, who breeds armadillos and from their shells and bony tails makes lamp shades and armadillo baskets. Starting with a few of the creatures and a small plot of ground, he now has a ranch that extends over many acres. The thousands of armadillos bred by him furnish a great part of the shells used in the manufacture of ornaments in this country. Since the animals leave their burrows only at night, their capture is limited to the hours after dark. As many as 250 of the shell producing creatures have been taken in a single night.

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He Runs a Hotel for Bats

PLAYING host to 250,000 bats is the queer but profitable hobby of Milton F. Campbell, of San Antonio, Tex. His lakeside bat hotel, a tall wooden tower shaped like the base of a windmill, is the outgrowth of experiments begun years ago by his father, Dr. Charles A. R. Campbell, at that time city bacteriologist of San Antonio. Believing that bats would rid the area of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, Dr. Campbell spent years trying to induce the creatures to settle in a wooden roost which he constructed near the city sewage plant. Finally, by means of ear-splitting phonograph records, which drove the bats from their accustomed haunts, he effected their transfer to his specially constructed tower.

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This is how we end up with killer bees.

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How Science Made a Better Bee

Amazing new discoveries bring improvement to nature’s masterpiece, enabling the busy little insect to do a better job for war.

By ALFRED H. SINKS

Photographs by WILLIAM MORRIS and ROBERT F SMITH

THE tiny honeybee—far more important to both war industry and our food supply than most people realize—is getting a lot of attention nowadays. Though nature has produced few animals as remarkable as these industrious little insects, entomologists and geneticists have found the means to improve on its handiwork. They are actually producing bees that work harder and so produce more honey—bees that are more industrious and energetic, healthier, and better able to protect their bee cities against natural enemies. Truly amazing are some of the results of this partnership of science and nature, and its future achievements may be greater still.

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HEDGEHOG HUNTING GOOD TRADE AND GOOD SPORT

By SAM E. CONNER

TRAPPING hedgehogs does not sound like a very attractive pursuit, but a man in Maine has found it to be a profitable business, as well as one that has an element of danger, and therefore offers excitement in excess of that which comes to a rabbit or fox hunter. While it is not generally known, there is a steady demand for these ugly-looking creatures from all sections of America and Europe. They are desired for zoos and menageries, both private and public, and country-fair and street venders, who use them to aid in selling preparations, disposed of under the name of hedgehog oil, hedgehog liniment, and like titles, provide still another market.

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RAISING RABBITS for PROFIT

RAISING rabbits for the market is a back-yard industry that has grown to million dollar proportions in the last few years. It is estimated that rabbit owners are receiving five million dollars annually from meat and fur, with the demand still going up.

In the past raising rabbits was simply a hobby, but now many people are devoting all their time to the small animals. Small initial capital, the small amount of space required, and the rapid development of rabbits to market size are factors that have stimulated the industry.

To get into the business you should first investigate marketing arrangements in your area. In some places slaughter houses that specialize in rabbits call for the live animals when they are ready. In other localities you arrange with a butcher to handle the output of your hutches. Domestic rabbit flesh is a delicious, tender meat comparable to breast of chicken.

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Yum!

Horse-Meat “Worms” Fool Frogs

TRICKING frogs into eating horse meat by making them think it alive is the solution worked out by H. L. Parker, of El Monte, Calif., for the problem of diet in domestic bullfrog breeding. For twenty years, Parker has been experimenting in raising frogs as a food delicacy. Recently he decided to try feeding his frogs on a horse-meat menu, since he found it practically impossible to provide the frogs’ natural live diet of vast quantities of minnows, insects, and earthworms. He contracted with the owner of a near-by lion farm for a supply of horse meat, the regular food of captive lions. This he chopped into strips about the size of worms and tossed into his concrete frog tanks.

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THREE AMERICAN Chinchilla Farms PRODUCE MOST COSTLY FURS

Wild Creatures from South American Andes Thrive in Captivity and Make Their Owner a Fortune in the Mountainous Sections of Our Western States

By Andrew R. Boone

IF YOU want the world’s finest fur coat, with wool long enough to thread a needle and fine as a spider’s web, you can get it, not from animals roaming at large in faraway places, but from captive rodents.

On three farms in Idaho, Utah, and California these tiny chinchillas grow. Naturalists call them the “missing link” between the rabbit, the squirrel, and the rat.

From the South American Andes, a former mining engineer, alone of the scores who have sought with fortunes and considerable skill to remove these strange little creatures from their native haunts in Peru and Chile to European and American pens, has transplanted a dozen. Today his herd numbers 160, only twenty more than would be required to make one large coat like the one illustrated at the extreme right.

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Be sure to check out the picture of the little girl dressed head to toe in rabbit skins on page 4. She looks like a character out of the Flintstones.

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Grow “ERMINE” Coats in Back Yard Rabbit Hutch

Furriers pay rabbit growers in United States over $30,000,000 a year for pelts, from which are made fur coats selling from $300 to $5,000 each. This article tells you how you set up in rabbit raising as a backyard pastime and reap the biggest profits from smallest outlay of cash.

by H. H. DUNN

MARY PALMER, who teaches school for $1,500 a year at San Diego, California, came out of the winter of 1930-31, with the determination to have a fur coat for the next winter.

“If I start saving now, and go in debt a little in the fall, I can get myself one of those $300 coats for a Christmas present,” she told her father.

“If you will give me an hour of your time every day, from now until next October,” replied her father, “I will give you a fur coat that you cannot buy for five times $300 and it will cost not more than $30, probably half that amount.”

As a matter of fact, for this is a true story, Mary’s father produced the fur coat on the date promised, and Mary sold it for $650 to a furrier, who, in turn, sold it for $1575. Then Mary’s father gave her another just like it. The total cost of the coats to Mr. Palmer was less than $15 each, and, with their trimmings, they represented an actual outlay of not more than $35 each.

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READ THE HAMSTER MANUAL

The most complete guide book on the successful breeding and raising of Syrian Golden Hamsters. Tells all about this new, fast growing, profitable and interesting hobby industry. Reveals all the secrets of the largest breeder of these delightfully profitable pets and laboratory animals. 34 Chapters chuck-full of information gleaned from actual experience as a breeder. Twenty Pages of illustrations. A few subjects are: history, housing, three methods of breeding, easy to get feeds, sexing, fertility vitamins, handling, educational, scientific projects, crating, profits and selling, where to buy and how to sell hamsters. Sent postpaid for $1.00.

Albert F. Marsh, 1524 Basil St., Mobile, Alabama

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Comical Mouse Circus Brings in a Steady Income

Troupe of little mice cavorting about in this freak circus displayed in merchant’s windows will attract huge crowds of passers-by—and net one a neat profit.

HERE is a money-making idea that is worth at least five hundred dollars of any man’s money. It is a veritable gold mine for any man who has even the tiniest spark of mechanical ingenuity—and it has been thoroughly tested and proven as a cash-getter.

It’s a mouse circus, using trained mice which aren’t trained!

Its usefulness is in creating a window attraction for stores in all lines of business. Two days’ trial on merit will convince any of ‘em.

Its cost is slightly over two dollars per circus, and each circus rents for a minimum of three dollars per week to merchants. Upkeep is practically nil.

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BEE RAISING PAYS BIG PROFITS
Get HOW TO SUCCEED WITH BEES, written by two outstanding experts, which gives more than 190 successful plans to produce big crops of honey. Join the ranks of spare time moneymakers and send for this guaranteed 90-page book today. Tells all about queens, equipment, summer, winter ami spring management, swarming, increasing colonics, how to produce section honey and ex-tracted honey, etc. loth edition, fully revised, only $1 .00.
POPULAR MECHANICS PRESS
200 E. Ontario St. Chicago 11, Ill.

Pet Shops Wrap Fish in Transparent Bags
Customers of pet shops selling goldfish and various tropical species can watch their purchases swim around as they are carried to home aquariums in novel transparent bags just introduced. Made of waterproof, transparent cellulose material, in various sizes, the fish bags have reenforced handles for ease in carrying. When the

container has been partially filled with water, the fish are transferred to it from the store tank.