The Portland daily press., 1897-07-07

RattlerS ana AoueIs '' ''~'' "a
the Stock.
Rochester. Mimi, July 2.-Along the
warm and honeycombed limestone bluffs
that line the Zumbro River in this land
of wheat and creameries are the homes OF
vast numbers of snakes. In the early
DAYS of settlement of the Northwest
there were myriads OF all the SORTS OF
deadly snakes known to North America
to be found in this neighborhood. Today
there are more snakes caught for circus
companies and Other buyers here than
anywhere else in the country except In
some of the lower counties of Florida. All
along the Mississippi and tributary
streams where snakes are to be found they
are caught for the Rochester farm and
sold to O. W. Estes, ayoung man, who
runs the snake farm, and for several
years has been making a success of the
venture
Mr.. Estes also carries on snake hatch
cry, something after the manner OF a hen
merry, but considerably more exciting
The eggs produced by his stock are
gathered and laid in the sun on the sand,
where in time they hatch out youngsters
fully as lively and venomous as their par
ents Many of these young snakes
are reared for sale, and others are
used for food for the king snake and 9th
ers that eat only their own kind.
A large part of the business OF this
Minnesota farm is in rattlesnakes, as
they are more plentiful than any other
variety. All this region used to be over
run by them. A single days receipts Of
diamond backed and other rattlers often
runs up to several score, especially when
an outside catcher for the farm brings
in his sacks full and sells Their to Mr..
Estes. These snakes vary from three to
six feet in length. Among the other va
rieties received and grown are spotted
adders, blowsnakes, the beautiful turtle
heads, the sullen bullsnakes, the gentle
blue racers, the spreading adders, and
many kinds of water, grass and garter
snakes. Alligators from Florida and
crocodiles from abroad, as we'll as some
foreign snakes, are constantly kept in
stock for customers, mostly circus men.
Estes is natural snake charner. and
never, unless requested by his customer,
which he deals, and to this fact he attri-
butes considerable of the success he has
had in raising them. He will, without
fear, fOndle a RATHER, bull, or an adder,
force open it's mouth and with his finger
nail deftly expose the poison sac and
fangs. In all his long experience in this
sort of thing he has never been bitten.
His favorite method of capture is to grab
the RATHER by the tail and dexterously
swing the snake into a sack but when
one is found lying at full length Estes
grasps it tightly back of the head.
Though he has many assistants among
the farmers of this vicinity, there is no
other man in this part of the United
States who dares to open snake jaws with
bare hands, as he does fearlessly. His
little daughter Hazel, who is only eight
years old, seems to have the same power
over the reptiles, and can often be seen
handling the most deadly snakes and al
lowing them to Irvine about her arms
and neck.
So far this year about 600 snakes of the
more valuable varieties have been
shipped from this farm. Not only are cir
cuses and menageries customers of Mr..
Estes, but in many cigar stores and sa
looms the reptiles are displayed as attrac-
tions to custom. A few days ago a RATHER
six feet long, eight inches in girth and
with twenty six rattles, was sent to
Minneapolis saloon Keeper Tor his VIM
dow. Rattlers are inexpensive things
to have about the house, for healthy
reptile taken in the spring will need no
food for a year. The rattlers in confine-
ment are now becoming blind preparatory
to shedding their skins. The wild rat
tiers do not shed thier skins quite so early.
The food given these pets consists chiefly
of gophers; frogs, rats, squirrels, birds
and rabbits being added occasionally.
The small boys in this vicinity derive
a considerable revenue from catching and
selling snake food to the farm. A stranger
scene can hardly be witnessed than cage
full of snakes making a meal of fifty or
one hundred frogs. In their greediness
they often swallow one another, and it is
no unusual thing for snake to back out
of a companions stomach, into which it
has pursued a tempting frog or gopher