The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1881-09-10
a LcecIl Farm.

In 1841 Mr.. Witte, established
small leech farm in Kent Avenue, Will
liamsburg, l.. I. In course Of time this
small establishment was abandoned, and
one of thirteen acres WAS established
near Newton, l.. l.. and to him the
writer is indebted for the following in
formation and description of the only
leecll farm in America. Tho breeding
ponds consist of oblong squares of one
and half acres each. The bottoms of
these ponds are of clay, the margins Of
peat. In June the leeches begin form
ing their cocoons Oh the peat margins
Of the POND.
The greatest enemies to the young
leeches arc musk rats, water rats, and
water shrews, who dig the cocoons out
of the soft peat breeding margins. Next
to rats and shrews is overheating of tho
peat OF the water of tho pond. In fact,
nothing is 80 fatal to leeches as too
high temperature. Mr.. Witte says he
has had leechcs frozen in solid ice, but
by slowly dissolved the ice and gradually
increasing the temperature of the water
the leeches sustained no injury. Tho
depth of the water in the ponds during
the summer is three feet; in winter time
the depth of water increased to avoid
freezing.
The leeches are fed every six months
Oh fresh blood placed i'll thin linen bags
which are suspended in the water. The
lecches, es soon rs they smell the blood
assemble from MI parts of the pond, and
attaching themselves to the outside of
the bag, suck the dissolving coagulated
blood through the linen. Digestion pro-
ceeds very slowly with the leech, during
which time the blood rcmaing undigcst-
ed in the stomach of the lecch is in
fluid state, as if taken in. The excre-
mental deposits are of grass-green
color. The best substance for packing
locches i'll is the peat of their natural
ponds made into stiff mud. Water
containing tannin, tannic acid, lime, salt,
or brakish water, must be guarded against
always; iron is not Objectionable, but is
All advantage in small quantities.
The demand for lcechcs in the last
few years has somewhat fallen off in the
Eastern and Southern States. Tho
Western States and California arc now
the heaviest buyers. Mr.. Witte's sales
alone average q thousand day. Tho
number of lcechcs imported into tho
United States amounts to about thirty
thousand yearly.
The custom Of stripping and sailing
lcechcs, to cause them to disgorge aftcr
having been applied, has passed away,
as many well established cases have oc-
CURED of infectious diseases having been
communicated on the application of the
same lcech to second party. A very
popular error exists that lccch when
applied takes only the bad blood (what-
ever that may beg and rejects the good;
this is mistake. With leech blood
is blood. be 1t the cold blood of fish or
tho warm blood of human being, no
matter how diseased that human being
may be. SO long as blood is not tainted
or putrid the leech will thrive on it. A
friend of mind. who was the proprietor
of large breeding establishment
ut The foot of the Hartz Mountains, when
wishing to foed his lcccles, was in the
habit of hiring poor laborcrs, at six
cents per day, to stand in tho water for
half an hour nearly up to their thighs,
that the lecches might obtain full gor-
ging of human blood
In the marshy lands of Roumania tho
wild leeches are captured by means of
men entering the water and allowing the
wild lceches to fastcn on to their naked
bodies. The leech fishers then strip
them off after reaching the shore.