HODGSON, Robert G. Nutria Raising. Toronto: Fur Trade Journal of Canada, 1938

(215 x 145 mm.) 92 pp. Black and white photographs throughout. Softcover stapled pamphlet with vignette and title and author in cursive. Overall VERY GOOD condition.

In the 1930s, Canada and the U.K. were abuzz for the German secret of raising the South American Swamp Beaver, otherwise known as Nutria. Nowadays, they are the topic of German political debate— the city of Bonn has issued bans on feeding the escaped rodents and there has been some question of whether the city allows them to be hunted. But less than a hundred years ago, pamphlets like this one praised Germany’s breeding methods of nutria and  offered advice on how to best create a veritable herd of nutria. Hodgson advocates that “they are a God-send to any farmer as they easily become so domesticated that they can be let loose without enclosure.” For fashion, nutria allow “ladies who could not think of wearing a full beaver coat, because they would look like baby elephants, can wear a nutria coat without looking shapeless.”

Like with the domestication- to- demonisation of pigeons, nutria have suffered a similar fate. This pamphlet shows the road from farm and fashion wonder to unwanted rodent for the nutria.