The value of a skunk skin depends mainly on its size and markings, they being graded by the buyers entirely by the amount of black fur, providing, of course, that the skin is prime and well handled.
Being slow moving animals, they can not catch the more active animals and birds as do the other members of the weasel family and their food consists mainly of mice, insects and grubs, also of the eggs and young of such birds as nest on the ground. They are very fond of poultry and frequently visit the poultry houses, killing the young birds. They also feed on carrion. When they can get it they will eat almost any kind of animal food. Even in the wild state the skunk is not, strictly speaking, a carnivorous animal as they will eat and in fact are fond of sweet corn when in a milky state, also sweet potatoes, melons and wild fruits. It appears that if the male skunk is not separated from the female at breeding time, the female will kill the male, presumably to protect her young. And on the other hand the male will kill and eat the young if given the chance.
Robert B. Phillips relates the following in H-T-T:
"I wish to relate an experience with the lowly skunk. I found some skunk signs near an old cave large enough for a small boy to creep in. I set one trap near the main entrance and another one about fifteen feet away both fastened to clogs. (I wish to state before I go farther that the cave has a sickening sulphur smell and in the winter time, no matter how deep the snow is elsewhere, you will not find any for about three feet around the mouth of the cave.) Well I visited the traps the next morning and upon arriving at the cave I saw two skunks about twenty feet from the hole. One was eating at the hind quarters of the other. Of course I thought they were both in my traps, but when about forty feet away the victorious skunk saw me and started climbing an embankment below the cave and I noticed he did not have a toe pincher clinging to him. The skunk was only two feet from his dwelling when I made a quick shot with a twenty two rifle. Of course I missed so I knew he was gone for the time being. I went to the other one and found him breathing his last. He had his entire tail, scent glands and the meat all eaten off the bones at the junction of the hind legs and the base of the backbone. In fact the hole in the body was so large that a full sized baseball could be put into the abdomen and the skunk still had a little life in him yet. Neither of them had thrown their scent.