- 1880  During their tenure of the land, it had been the policy of the Company to retain it as a great fur-preserve, and therefore, they kept the outer world as far as possible in ignorance of its resources and capabilities.
- 1929  (1931)  There was material wreckage in the form of exhaustion of fur preserves, the duplication of trading posts and the multiplication of equipment and men.
- 1953  The greatest cause for concern, however, lay in the territories under the jurisdiction of the Hudson's Bay Company, and which, in conformity with that company's desire to keep the country a vast fur-preserve, were still almost empty.
2 a large tract in the fur country where fur-bearing animals live in their natural habitat, being trapped in a controlled way under sanctuary conditions.
See also: fur farm (def. 2) ranch ((1)) ((n.)) (def. 2b)
- 1946  Leonard Butler, Ph.D., the Company biologist, has been making a study for some years of fur cycles and the wild life of the fur preserves.