The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-01
sPIDER-FARMINe. AN INDUSTRY,
Pierre Grantaire and His Multi-Iegeed
Pets Which He Sells for Ten Do,,ars a
Hundred to Wine Merchants for Use in


Hundred to Wine Merchants for Hoo in
Cellars
There Is but one spider farm in the
United States. As far as the writer can
learn thele are only two in the world.
Ent0mologists have collected and raised
spiders for purposes of scientific obserya-
t1on and investigation, just as baoiIli and
other unpleasant animals are nurtured.
Here and there spider has been made
a pet OF. by some lonely prisoner of Chill
lon or the Tombs, but spider farming as
a money-making industry is yet in its
! infancy. What in the world is done with
q crop of spiders? you ask. One has only
to go four miles from PHILADELPHIA on tine
Old Lancaster Pike nd ask for the farm
of Pierre Grantaire to sec what can be
found nowhere else in this country, and
abroad only in little. French village in
the Department of the Loire, says the
Philadelphia Times.
Pierre Grantairs furnishen spiders at so
much hundred for distribution In the
wine vaults of the merchants and the
nouveau richie. His trade is chiefly with
the wholesale merchant, who is able to
stock cellar with new, shining, freshly
labelled bottles, and in three months see
them yelled with fllmy cobwebs, so tina
the effect of twenty years of storage is
secured at small cost. The effect upon q
customer can be imagined, and is hardly
to be measured in dollars and cents. 1t
Il, +,,,G TO I, i-u
with dust That effect is easy to the
veriest tyro in tho wine trade. But COB
webs-that Is Observation-Disclosures spun
from cork to cork. oobwebs that drape
the slender neck like Edelicate lace when
the flask is brought to the light-the seal
Of years of slow mellowing and fruition.
The Lancaster Pike is an old, old high
way that trem bled to the tramp of march
| ing columns in the revolution. In onesof
| thu low. stone farm houses huge as the
chimney, live Pierre Grantaire, veteran
of the French Army, who was conscript-
ed as middle-aged man from his fathers
farm in 1870 to fight the SPrussians. For
ten years he has lived here, a rather
unique figure among the matter of fact
farmers around him. For the tricolor
always f1ys from his roof on the 18th of
July, and the colors ars draped half
mast on the anniversary of the day that
the hated Prussiars marched into Paris
a quarter of cen fury ago.
Old Grantaire has wonderful vegeta-
BILE farm, and sends in the choicest "green
stuff that is displayed in 1.-the Pbiladel-
phia markets. His neighbors know that
he is market gardener, and also raises
mushrooms, and rather envy him the re-
turns from his SQUADS that retail at 60
cents a pair this time of the year. But
few of them know of the spider raising
industry, which makes su bstantial part
of Pierre's business 1t is not to the old
mans interest to have this advertised,
and he seldom takes q caller into the two
| rooms of his dwelling where his multi
| legged pets cover the walls and weave their
gossamer patterns every where.
| II WIS % bit shudderIna for the visitor,
who had been brought up to smash
spider with slipper or whatever come
| bandiest, to be brought into room
where tt ere were spiders in front of him,
| spiders to the rear of him myriads of
| spiders on every hand.
The walls were covered with wire
| squares from six inches to foot across,
like magnifed sections of the wire fence
used to enclose poultry yards. Behind
| these wire screens the walls had been
covered with rough planking. There
were cracks between the boards, appar-
entity LETT with design, and their weather
holes and splintered orevioes. Long
tables running the length of the room
were covered with tsmall wire frames,
wooden boxes and glasa jars.
all of these wires in the roum were COW
fered over by patterns OF lace traoery. in
| tho geome tTioaI outlines fashioned by the
spider artists, inpired by the mysterious
| instinct which has made them weave
their tiliny snares in the same fashion
since the world began. The sunlight
streamed through the open door and the
room seemed hung with curtains Of elm
woven lace work. The king OF this fairy
palao5 raped his stubby pipe against the
door, an the webs were dotted With black
spots as the spiders scampered from
| their retreats In the wall cracks and
score Of Misunderstanding pets as big as
half-dollars emerged from their crannies
on the table and clustered against their
| glass roofngs.
"They think I feed them now," said
Pierre, "but fool them for you. They
have brains, these little creatures. All,
they are cunningl After you see them
and 1 tell you of them you will never
crush them more You will say, The
spid AZ can teach me something. I will
watch him. He is diplomat, AN arohi-
teot, mathematician His knowledge Is
worth having, An there is fine fellow
running on your neck. Don't knock him
off He will not bite you. They are
harmless He wishes to give yoUA bon
jour and make your acquaintance.
''You wish to know of the business
first That is like you people-money
first, then tho sentiment. There are 200
spiders in this room, all raising families
and minding their own business. Is not
that teaching of the world and lesson
already? You see, in these frames /
breed my pets, and when the infants are
big enough to run about taks them IN
the next room, where they can set up for
them selves, as you say. 1t Is from there
l sail most. They are great oannbals, my
pets; they eat their children and the
children eas each other. So must get
good pice for those that survive their
childhood.
cit is not all kinds of spiders that
make webs. There are those that live in
holes in the ground and make for them
selves trap doors, and some make soft
nests in cracks while others spin small
homes in the grass or Ia the room corner.
| No. indeed: | have sought out kinds that