Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1901 — FROGS BY WHOLESALE. [ARTICLE]

FROGS BY WHOLESALE.

Farm Tor Their Propagation on an Unprecedented Scale. A frog farm on a scale never before undertaken in this country Is about to be started In Massachusetts. According to the Boston Transcript, a farm of ten acres has been purchased at Ware and the work of placing It in shape for the contemplated enterprise Is going on rapidly and it is expected to launch the enterprise early this bpring. The tract is admirably adapted for the purpose, as a stream bf water passes through it The system followed in the cultivation of the animals will be that of a series of artificial ponds, the first being the smallest, ten by three feet, in which the eggs will be placed for hatching, and as the creatures develop they will be removed to larger ponds where they are given a chance to expand. When they are a year old they will occupy bodies of water about ten feet square, and at the age of two years the animals will be allowed to splash around a pool measuring thirty feet square. These ponds are all connected by locks through which it will be a convenient matter tn transfer the frogs when the time for this operation arrives. The ponds will be fitted with walls and bottom of cement and after graduating from the thirty-foot pond the frog will be full grown and ready for the market. Arrangements are being made for a crop of from 20,000 to 40,000 frogs a year, and if the venture proves a success it will be a comparatively easy matter to enlarge the capacity of the farm to 100,000 frogs per year. Frog cultivation is a very simple matter and one which requires but small investment and no great amount of attention or work, and the returns are very large. A very important market for frogs, besides the hotels and restaurants, will be found in colleges and medical schools. There is a growing demand for the creatures for use in the study of natural- history, and especially for purposes of medical research. At present the supply in insufficient, and students, especially in winter, find it difficult, to procure any specimens. The cultivation of the frog has hitherto been promulgated only on a small scale, and chiefly as food. Schools have been obliged to send to North and South Carolina for their specimens, and then have not bee‘n able to procure the animals in the best condition. The farm at Ware will be equipped with heating apparatus, so that the supply will be constant and students will be enabled to obtain the objects of their experiments during the winter, when they are most desired for study. During the cold weather the frogs remain dormant in the mud. Large cakes of this soil will be dug from the ponds and removed to the heaters, where the frogs will be thawed out and sent to the schools in a normal condition, so that the blood circulation and the heart beat may be studied under the best conditions possible.