The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-12-15
FROGS EATEN IN NEW YORK.
The Consumption is Greater Than in
 

I
 The Consumption is Greater Than in Paris.
 Are there many frogs legs eaten in New York;" the reporter asked Of Commissioner Blackford.
 There is not city in the world !" said Commissioner Blackford, ''that consumes so many frogs legs as New York"
 More than in Paris?'
 "Yes, indeed" replied the com
 missioner. While years ago the French were commonly known as frog eaters, the New Workers to-day should more properly be called 'frog-eating people rather than the Parisians. I seldom found the dish on the menus in
 the restaurants of Paris. while in New
 York you can get them at nearly every first-class hotel and restaurant. This dish is not common in London. and
 only few of the high-grade restaur-
 ants there prepare it."
 According to Commissioner Black
 ford's figures, fully 75 per cent of the
 frogs for the New York market are
 shipped from the Ontario district in
 Canada. The remaining 25 per cent.
 are from the Adirondacks and the state
 of Maine. Frogs are very plentiful in
 all of these districts, and they multiply
 so rapidly that there is no danger of a
 decrease in the supply for years to
 come. About six of the saddles of these
 frogs weigh q pound and retail at 75
 cents
 fro fY,4 4t,r, from the state of Missouri, but are scarce and do not figure largely in New
 York's market Three of those saddles
 will make pound. Great quantities
 of frogs are to be found in the New Jersey meadows, but they are so small that a pound of dressed legs can- not be obtained from less than two or three dozen frogs. Occasionally farm CTS boy will bring 40 or 50 of these frogs to market, but the pay is so small compared with the amount of work required in the hunt that no one makes a regular business of searching the adjacent meadows.
 The frog-taking season begins about June 1 and continues steadily until September l. Throughout, Canada there are many men who make 8 regular business of catching, while in the Adirondacks the work is done by the guides during their spare hours. The an- imals are caught with a hook baited with red flannel and suspended from rod about ten feet in length. There is a strange fascination about red flannel that the ordinary croaker cannot resist. The ppnO1ant if ic Ia IaJ o inches of his nose he makes a wild leap at it, with jaws wide open. and is promptly hooked. He is released and placed in big basket carried on the back of the frog-hunter.
 Sometimes the frog is found to be sleeping. Then the hook is placed under him and quick jerk lands him. When the basket is filled the frogs are carried to pen in one corner of the pond near the huts of the hunters, and are kept there until there is a demand for them from New York. They are then scooped out of the pen with net and killed and dressed.
 This operation is very simple. The frog Is stunned with blow on the head and Immediately the head is severed Then the skin is loosened at the ton and in jiffy it comes off like a glove, The saddle is separated from the body with one blow, and the legs are folded together as one would fold his arms. They are packed in boxes of chopped ice and are ready for shipment.
 During the summer months the New York market receives from 5000 to .00o pounds of dressed saddles daily. The retail price then reaches the lowest notch of 25 cents a. pound. At present about 1000 pounds pass through the markets every day. As it is impossible | to take the frog during the winter inn mense quantities of the saddles are frozen during the early autumn and stored in ice-boxes. The meat retains its full flavor, and Is as good as if | It had been killed the day previous.
 A great many attempts have been made towards the artificial propagation | of frogs from the eggs, but none has ever succeeded. Seth Green, one of the | most successful fish culturists in the | made many tests several |