Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 307, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1912 — MANY TERRAPIN ARE HATCHED [ARTICLE]

MANY TERRAPIN ARE HATCHED

Georgia Man Finds Way to Keep Species From Becoming Extinct. Philadelphia —At the Hotel Hanover is A. M. Barbee of Savannah, Ga., who is hatching diamond back terrapin these days, and proving that the tasty reptile can be conserved and a supply arranged for generations to come. This will be good news to the bon vivant. for it has been proclaimed that the finest flavored member of the terrapin family will soon be extinct. Barbee, who has been in the business of catching and selling terrapin for twenty-three years, began to study the matter of establishing hatcheries. He has succeeded. The female terrapin has a habit of depositing about ten eggs a month. She spreads ( them out on the sand and gets away, having no further interest in her offspring. But the crows, who are as fond of terrapin as is a millionaire, swoop down upon them. Barbee established a farm where this yea# he will hatch 70.000 little diamond backs. At this farm, which in on the Isle of Hope, about nine miles from Sayannah, the terrapin go to him when he calls. When he feeds them he floods the sand piles on which they live, and when they have fed the water Is drawn off. He hopes to interest the government in his plan.