Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-06-17

FROG FARMING.
How This Industry Is Successfully Con-
Quoted Under Favorable Auspices.

How This Industry Is Successfully Con-
Quoted Under Favorable Auspices.
The first requisite for successful frog
farming are suitable ponds or stretch of
low, well watered grounds where the
frogs will never suffer for lack of mois-
ture. In series of small pools they
thrive and multiply most rapidly. Shall
low pools they ought to be, we'll grown
with water plants, having thick mud
bottoms and not less than 10 or 10 feet
wide. A series Of pools is better than
an extent of marsh, for the frogs are
easier to fatten in them, more perfectly
protected against their enemies and
more quickly caught for market than
in great spread of Doggy land. In this
connection writer in the Chicago Rec
ord furnishes the following informa-
ton:
Being possessed Of two or three ponds,
rake them we'll to insure against snakes;
also Danish pickerel and other fish that
may interfere with the frogs. At dis
lance of about two yards from the wa
ter's edge a wire net fence should en-
circle the miniature lakes
This is intended to bar out the farm
yard ducks and geese and the weasel.
Wire netting about four feet high or
more will serve this purpose. Rushes,
water plants, rotting logs, etc., must
not be removed from the waters edge.
Shade trees along the banks are to be
highly valued.
AS a matter of fact, the trne edible
frog, Rama esculenta. found in southern
Europe, is not native of our states,
but to stock pond with very tender,
salable frog flesh the American Rama
palustris serves we'll enough. His long,
plump legs and those of our native bull
frog please the most fastidious epicure.
For So one should be able to buy enough
of these creatures almost to provide an
Egyptian plague, and unceremoniously
they must be dumped by the buoketful
into their new quarters. The first six
months they are best left to their own
devices. The owner of the ponds can
feel confident the colony is thriving if
the water shows an abundance of lively
tadpoles or hanging from the leaves
and roots along the banks are clusters
of tiny jellylike globules. These are
eggs, that require about one month for
Matching. A pond stocked in the late
autumn will not produce anything the
first winter. By the latter part of April
or the 1st of May the ponds ought to be
overlooking with young frogs eager for
food. Slugs, insects, etc., they will snap
up for themselves and gladly eat bread
and meat. They do not actually require
regular feeding unless the pond is very
much overstocked, but French breeders
have found that by feeding they produce
more and better flesh for the market.
When the first spring Matching of tad
poles develops into lively frog life, the
ponds begin to offer the owner profit.
A small boy under wise surveillance
can do all the unpleasant work. He can
catch and kill them, sever the legs and
then drop the body back in the water
for the greedy survivors to feed upon. In
big granite ware pals the legs are then
sent on to market, the pals, like the
milkman's, being returnable and mark
ed with the name of the frog farmer
and address.
When the cold weather comes on, the
price of frogs legs rises, for the free
lances who hunt frogs in the marshes
relax their chase, and the frogs them
selves go into the mud. Then the farm
er gets best results. He can rake the
muddy pond bottoms for fat fellows and
keep up the supply. One pond should
be untouched, for from their buried in
habitants the spring crop of tadpoles
must be raised.
Before engaging i'll frog farming the
provident man or woman will first obtain
ready market for the frogs either with
the fish dealers in the nearest large city
or make practical deals directly with
the hotel proprietors or restaurant keep
ers and bargain to supply certain
number of pounds of frogs legs every
day of the week. It stands to reason
that frog farming is useless in districts
far from railroad or remote from a
metropolis.