The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-05-14
FACTS OF FROGS.
Money Can Be Made by
Raising Them.
If You Do Not Like a Frog Dinner
There Are Plenty of Others
That Do.
Did Won ever eat a frog dinnerP

Did you ever eat frog dinner?
Never, you will say. Then you have
missed something.
NASTY things! The idear' may be the
exclamation of a young housewife who
would not shrink from terrapin stew.
turtle steak, a clam fry or half-dozen
oysters raw on the half shell.
Now a terrapin, turtle. clam or an
oyster is subject to all the same natural
repulsion as frog, and an oyster is par
ticularly Objectionable in appearance and
Shiny suggestiveness.
Frogs are supposed to divide Eng
land aud France. extraordinarily
speaking. as sharply as the English Chan
mel does geographically. One of the FIST
things which sensible Americans did after
the colonies had thrown off the yoke was
to disembarrass themselves of all silly
insular prejudces. They began eating
frogs, French fashion. In many of the
Eastern States frogs are RS common as
chickens or chops in the windows of rest
aurHnts.
1t takes quite number OF frogs to fur
nish a square meal. because only the hind
legs are eaten. A frog dinner comes high.
II is comparable in price only 10 reed birds
on toast OF quail in the first Of the season.
Fried IN batter a dozen frogs legs would
tempt any epicure. A very dainty spring
chicken is the best suggestion. but the
frog is tenderer than that. Yes, there is
money in frogs if the work of raising them
is set about in the right way.
The best specimens for the table come
from Coos Bay. Or. and are worth about
% cents a dozen up there. The boys catch
them and Will put them on board the
steamer in numbers to suit, suitably boxed
up with plenty Of airhOles and wet grass
so that there is little loss of stOc on the
trip down. The cost Of transporta tiun is
trife and So expended in the venture will
return $40.
II the thing is TO be carried out on more
ambitious scale and 4 little garden space is
available, there is nothing like having a
frog pond OF your own. The affair NAV be
made as ornamental as desired, and little
rock work in the center is not only orua-
mental, but gives the frogs chance to try
a change of element. The water need not
be more than foot deep. and concrete
bottom is desirable. On this may be
spread a layer of sand and gravel. and
some water weed may be transplaEted aud
set into the sand. When the weeds have
begun 10 grow vigorously turn in the frogs.
II Is a good plan, il the venture is Tor
pond, which need not be more than y feet
long. feet wide and ? feet deep. The
water is TO fill half Of this.
The frog is an insect feeder, and the
weeds VIII supply all the insects required
as soon as they have begun TO spread over
The pond. The frog is Que of the clranest
OF feeders and viii not touch anything that
is dead or putrescent. 1t is very necessary
for success in all ventures of this kind TO
study the habits Of animals. Even the hog
is not naturally dirty. II will at any time
prefer clean water 10 that which is foul
The habits of the frog afford an nfinite
amount Of amusement to cnntemplative
person apart from the profit question.
Some auatOmists have cOntended that man
before birth goes through all the metamOr-
phoses Of the frog. ana it is a well-known
physiological fact that children have been
horn with frogs heart, that is with a
two-chambered heart instead of a four
cham bered one, through an accidental
arrest of devel0 pment.
About the most wonderful sight in The
world is the circulation of the blood in the
frogs foot. ANY one who possesses a
fairly good microscope can see it and IL
will cost nothing. except trifiing ineon-
yenieuee 10 the frog.
By cutting a hole an inch and a half
square in the I'D of cigar-bOX, bringing
the web of frogs foot across it and tying
his toes lightly 10 pins stuck around the
over the stage OF a microscope. a half
inch objec;ure will easily show the blood
disks and hen it is focused on the object
the Inevitable oh! is extorted from the
observer.
Master froggy s kept cool by small
piece OF linen well wetted thrown over
him, aud while he may kick bit a. first
he Will soon reconcile himself to the situa-
ton. The spectacle Is so fascinating that
the minutes and hours glide by like In
stants Froggy mnst be Kept wet by an
occasional sprinkle; that is the sole con-
dition.
1t is impossible to describe in words this
glimpse into the life of another being.
Read the scene in the strange story by
Lord Lytton. where Sir Philip Dervsl
hypnotIzes Allen Fenwicl in the museum,
and you will get faint idea of it.
There may be many young people who
would like TO 60 into this business of frog
raising eXperimentally on the small scale.
A big bathtub will replace the pond, ana
the bigger 1t is the better. The affair
should he set in the coolest, shadiest par,
of the back yard. There should be either
some rOekwOrk or wooden lodges at the
waters edge. for frogs like TO spend at
least half their time out of water, espe-
cially in the daytime.
1t Is just possible that there are youth
full ssDirants TO frog lore who do not know
frog from toad. A toad is dry. warty.
leaps. The toad is land animal; the frog
is a deniZen of the water.
very wonderful is the development of
the young frog. The eggs are deposited in
March, each female contributing about
1000 so that il frogpond is once stocked
and the spring comes around there is no
further need Of impnrations.
The mass OF eggs drops 10 the bottom at
first then rises to the surface in three
weeks little tail protrudes, then out pops
little tadpOle and at once goes to the
bottom to begin life on its own account.
DAY later they assume the full tadpole
form, and rudimentary gllls appear on
each side OF the neck. The mass of mucus
or Jelly In which the tadpo.es were born,
go to speak. furnishes their first natural
food; after that they subsist on pond
weed till the hind legs are developed. The
tan next disappears by absorption. and
then comes grand exodus from the water,
explaining the popular myth of a shower
OF frogs.
The frog is proverbial croaker, and
there is some foundation for the story that
their croaking forebodes rain. The tree
frog and the flying frog OF Borneo are,
crOakers also. There Is just this one draw
back to frog-raising-when the colony gets
numerous the nelghbors will be apt TO OBJ
Ject to the noise OF the twilight eroakers.
Frogs fatten rapidly in comfortable quar-
tiers and are worth from 70 cents a dozen
upward, in the restaurants. At first
cost Of % cents a dozen, and dollar for
the transportation of say ten dozen, with
nothing to pay for feed, there is pretty
good margin. TO say othing of the increase
OF stock in the second year. after which it
Is all profit. with no worry and no care.
A Missing Forty-Niner.
John Louis Cassidy came TO this city on
the ship Tamerlane, which left New York