Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-05-14
ANoLEwoRM cuLTuHE.
Experimenting with View to SIppiyfffj
Florida Fishermen with Bait.

Experimenting With View to Supplying
Florida Fishermen with BaIt.
lGreen Cove Syringe tFla-) Letter.
The st. Johns river Is fairly alive witt
fishes. "Teeming with fish aid fishing
with teams" is the way q newspaper of
the river region headed an item about
carting away loads of fish to be used for
fertilizing orange trees. But there Is =
great scarcity Of bait throughout this re-
gion. To the majority Of men and boys
who come down here from the North bait
means angleworms, fsh-worms, earthS
wormS-that species of the genus lum<
brfcus which can be found anywllere irf
the North i'm sizes to fit any kind Of hook
by simply going around behind the barn
and turning up the mold with q spade.
But you could turn up a miIlicn acres I'M
Florida without unearthing a solitary
angleworln, The lambricas doesn't know
anything about subsisting on canned
provisions from Chicago and New York,
and so he hasn't tried to live in Florida.
Various substitutes for the angleworm
are used by the native Florida anglers
such as fragments of dismembered crabs,
cut-bait, cotton rolled in dough, chunks
of canned beef and boAnet-worms. To get
crabs for bait you must have a string with
piece of meat on the end Of it and scoop
net, and lots of time and patience. To pro-
ccTe supply Of cut-bait you must hire a
darky to 60 out with a cast-net aud get
some sinners, or hook you catfish and cut
some strips from along his back bone. This
latter scheme for getting cut-bait is pur-
sued to such an extent that you can hardly
find big catfish that hasn't scars on his
back where strips of bait have been taken
OH. Cotton and dough make an easy bait
to get, but hard one to catch fish with;
and the same is true of Chicago canned
bait. Bonnet-worms are by far the most
alluring bait procurable, but they are hard
to get. 1t is necessary to go to the mouth
OF some creek where there are lily pads,
and hunt among them for rads that have d
hole running down into the stem. at the
bottom of this hole the bonnet-worm is found
sometimes. But he is made of stuff very
closely resembling that of which the jelly
fish is composed, and therefore Is not dur
able enough for the ordinary wear and
tear to which bait, even In good fishing
water, is subjected.
In view of the scarcity of bait and of the
demand for the always reliable angle<
worm lady of this town has started an
angleworm nursery. The worms for maxi
ing this interesting experiment were pro-
cured in the North last fall and brought I'M
a small wooden pail filed with rich mold.
Upon arriving here the pail of worms was
buried in a corner of the door V ard, half
the mold having been taken out and an
equal quantity of Florida soil or sand put
in, and holes having been cut in the sides
of the pail to admit of the worms going
out and returning, in case they might be-
disposed to explore tho new elements by
which they were to be surrounded. Rec<
ognizing the fact that II angleworm cul-
ture was to be made a success I'M Florida ft
must be through the worms adapting
themselves to the soil, and not by fitting
the sand for the worms, the lady has done
nothing to improve the quality of the soil
surrounding her interesting brood, but has
simply made their native mold half sand,
as stated, and is anxiously noting the re-
suits of this dilution.
AS the worms were fortunately tyans-
planted deep enough to make them below
the "frost line," they were not injured by
the freeze. In the two months that have
elapsed since they were introduced into
Florida soil they have not perceptibly
fallen away i'm size, but they have lost
much of their conspicuous and alluring
pink color, and have taken on a yellowish
tinge. Whether this is due to making
their mold half sand, or is a symptom Of
biliousness, has not been ascertained. A
few grains of quinine have been stirred
into the pail, and If the worms resume
their original color 1t will be reasonable to
infer that their ff-color appearance was
due to malarious influences. Muclr de-
pends upon the settlement of this point,
for, even If they should grow beyond oil
expectation in their new element and vet
take on the color of the sand, they would
be almost invisible in water, and eonse-
quently of no practical value as bait. Thus
farthey have seemed to be shy of the unfer-
tilted sand outside, and have kept knotted
together near the center of their pail.