The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-06
TERRA rNBRHD oy FARMS.

From the New York sun.i
 Every year there is scare. particu- iariy in New York. Philadelphia. BaiC- more and Washington. over the possi- biiity of the extinction Of the terra pin. Sometimes the report Is spread In the winter. when the terrapin Is in sea son. Sometimes 1t goes about In the summer or the autumn. when the farm ers and the fishermen of Maryland and Virginia arc impounding terrapin for the next winters trade. For even now. when the thrifty Maryland and Virgi- nia farmers come upon strays. they pick them up and take them home. They do not fatten them. On the con- trary. they seldom feed them. The ter rapin eats nothing all winter. Like the bear he hibernates. So when the terrapin has had his spring feed, you can put him in T pin or n barn and leave him there for two or three months without fear that he Will die. A Baltimore dealer who nailed a ter rapin in a box and left him there for three months claimed that the captive weighed an ounce more when he came out than when he went In. There are laws against impoundng terrapin in Maryland, but they are Ignored. In the neighborhood Of chincoteague Island there are several houses where from POO to 1000 terrapin at time are stored In straw. They are curious sight. When the owner wants to display them he raps on the side of the house before opening the door. Each terrapin sticks up his head to see what the noise Is about. This peculiarlty of the terrapin Is used to lure him to destruction in the south. The fishermen rowing over the mud banks raps on the side of the boat. Then the terrapin (probably a female) comes to the surface to see what made that noise, and the fisher man promptly satisfies her curiosity.
 There Is no likelihood that the terra pin will become extinct. although 1t is becoming scarcer every year. So says Charles H. Stevenson of the fish com ihiooioit. VtAs ottN0ilsDi pSA.SNNo tHot the solution of the terrapin problem Is to be found in terrapin farming, which is now carried on to a small ex- tent It is we'll that the gourmet has the consolation offered to him by MT. Stevenson, for the terrapin Is consid cred the greatest delicacy known to the American table. But, though the gourmet may not have to deny himself terrapin stew, he will have to pay more for 1t. Terrapin used to sell freely at l2h cents in Baltimore. The price fre- quently rises to $50 dozen In winter now, and there is not an oter-supply at that price. N
 It is a matter of common report that Washington and Lafayette and Corn wallis and Tarleton ate terrapin. Prob ably they ate it not as a luxury, but for the lack of something better to eat, and kicked about 1t, and referred to 1t as hardshiniarising from their un- fortunate surroundings There was once law in Maryland which provided that a man should feed only so much terrapin to isslaves. Even the slaves rebelled against a. terrapin' diet. As for the farmers and fishermen along the bay shore, they ate terrapin be- cause 1t was economical; and the crop was so valueless that they did not take the trouble to gather more than was needed. for their own tables. John C.. Clayton of Delaware, once secretary of state and the negotiator of the famous Clayton-Bulwer treaty; was fond of ter rapin, and he used totbuy an OK load of them for $1 and have them shovelled into his cellar like coal. This taste for terrapin was considered so peculiar by his people that it has been handed down as state tradition.
 Before 1S45 there was no commercial demand for terrapin, and they swarmed in the waters of Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, and South Carolina. and Virginia, unmolested, except as they were needed for home consump- ton. But about fifty vars ago the peo- pie in large cities began to appreciate the toothsomeness of terrapin stew. and the Chesapeake fishermen began to bring the terrapin to market. They were negroes usually who hunted for terrapin, and the negroes are the great est hunters to-day.
 In 1S45 a. North Carolina man in- vented a dredge or drag for catching terrapin more expeditiously, and four years later Captain John B. Etheridge. keeper of 8 North, Carolina lighthouse, caught 2,150 with a drag in the month of February. and took them to Norfolk for sale. He got $400 for his cargo. and this encouraged him to return for an- other catch of 1900, which he sold in Baltimore for sS50.. The business was suspended during the war. but it re- vived in 1866, and 1t has been brisk ever since. The red fox has a great fondness for terrapin eggs. and he de- stroys them in great quantities.
 The terrapin is found only in Amer lea. It occurs from Long Island Sound to Texas, and some terrapin are found on the Pacific coast. Virginia fur nishes about one-thifd of all the terra pin found in the United States. Mary lands crop is about half that of Vir- ginia, but 1t brings 8 greater price, because the terrapin are much finer. New York. New Jersey and connecti- cut together do not produce more than 12,O0Opounds oe terrapin in a year. and tha x,ol,,n of +ba v,rndv,ct iA not 3k OO0