Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1911 — RAISING BUTTERFLIES AS A BUSINESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RAISING BUTTERFLIES AS A BUSINESS

Mp. - • , • . 6 . , I HERE is no end of odd occupations in the world whereby people pain a livelihood, but certainly One of the most novel of these vocations is the raising of butterflies for profit. "Butterfly farming" is new too, as new as airship building in fact, and up to date not many people have taken it up but it la safe to predict that the number will increase considerably as time goes on ter when one can get S2O to $25 for a handsome butterfly in the open market it goes without saying that such butterflies are worth cultivating and are enough rao're profitable than chickens to justify the extra trouble they cause. Perhaps, at the outset, a word should be said about the market for butterflies and then the reader will better understand wh/ men and women are devoting all their time to butterfly farming and to that other branch of the business,—the hunting of rare butterflies in out of the way corners of the world. First of atl there is a constant and fairly heavy demand for butterflies from museums, schools and colleges and scientific Institutions of one kind or another. Such institutions may be seeking Individual specimens of butterflies to fill gaps in collections already fairly complete or (particularly if the institution be a newly established one) they may be in the market for a complete collection of butterflies representing the winged Jewels that inhabit any country or region, and it is a commission such as this that brings Joy to the butterfly expert, for great institutions of learning are usually willing to pay a fair price for the prises they seek. Yet another butterfly market and one that Is broadening rapidly year by year is that wherein butterflies are sold to private collectors. It is very common in Europe and is yearly becoming more common in this country for people of wealth to have collections just as people of means and leisure amuse themselves with collections of stamps or coins or paintings

or old furniture. Certainly there Is nothing in nature or art more beautiful than a collection of butterflies and it is a hobby upon which one may spend almost any amount of money, as is proven by the fact that one of the Rothschilds gladly paid more than $3,000 for an especially rare butterfly which he had long sought, for his collection. Most of private collectors, of course, purchase their butterfly treasures merely for (heir own satisfaction and for the edification of their friends but there are other folk who buy butterflies as an aid to their work or business. For instance the great Parisian dressmakers buy butterflies in order, to obtain now shades and suggestions for new color combinations for gowns. The famous Worth started the practise and other dressmakers who cater to the wealthy fashionables have followed his example. The butterfly hunter penetrates to the wildest and most inaccessible quarters of the globe in quest cf his precious prey and much of hie butterfly hunting must be done at night with the aid of a dark lantern. A butterfly hunter is glad to get a rare butterfy dead or alivo because the

price to bo brought by that one specimen is apt to be well worth while but if the hunter has a “butterfly farm” at home,-—as most, of the experts in this field are coming to have, —he bends every effort to capturing alive the winged beauty, or, better still, seveTral specimens, in the hope that such captives may be made the pioneers in a transplanted colony of the butterflies. However the mere capture of the butterflies, difficult as it may be, is not the sum and substance of the butterfly expert’s troubles for if the butterflies are to live and thrive in their new home their keeper must be familiar with their habits and must have transplanted the vegetation necessary to give them the same environment they had in their original home or “something equally as good.” The most beautiful butterflies are the tropical ones and thus it comes about that the butterfly farmer is most eager to stock his farm with the live jewels from Central and South America and the West Indies. Some of these tropical butterflies measure six inches- from tip to tip of the wings and they are resplendant in coloring of the most vivid hues. The butterfly dealer must handle his stock with greater care than is bestowed by any other merchant Qf course the butterflies sold to collectors, museums, etc., are dead but extreme care must be exercised in handling lest their delicate wings be broken or crushed. Each butterfly when unmounted is kept in a threecornered envleope and the butterfly expert likes to mount a valuable specimen as promptly as possible feeling that the treasure is safer in that form. The latest approved method is to mount each butterfly between two glass plates so that both sides of the wonderfully colored wings may be seen. Another style mount consists of a square plaque of plaster into the hollowed side of which a butterfly fits while over the specimen is placed a glass Jid which seals it hermetically. This permits butterfly trophies to be hung on the wall like pictures