Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-13
half bulls and the other half heifers.

half bulls and the other half heiters.
1.-The feeding of the terrapin is puzznfs
thing. / have not yet found whether 1t IS
necessary for a terrapin to eat at all
Once 1 made an experiment and put a
number Of terrapin in separate crawl
kept them there for a year and gave them
absolutely nothing to eat. At the end OF
that time / took them out and found that
many of them were in just as good condi-
ton as those I had been feeding all the
year. However we feed them. We give
them exclusively shrimp and crabs to eat.
They will take most anything you give
them. but these two things. l have found.
improve the favor immensely. Our 10000,
I should say, on an average consume tWen-
ty bushels of shrimp and crab day. IL
YOU stop feeding them it does not seem to
worry them at all, as they appear to pick
I'D more nourishment from the mud than
anything else. We have an army OF
darkies employed to catch the crabs and
shrimp for us. and all along the river there
are lines out daily.
1.-The terrapin is a hardy beast. ] have
seen terrapin placed in the center of a
block of ice and frozen fast to it. They
have been left there four or five days then
chopped out, thawed a while by the fire,
and I'm short time were as lively as ever.
'It takes a terrapin seven years to at
tain his full growth, and. while the length
of his days is matter of dispute, l be-
lieve they live twenty-five or thirty years.
The heifer lays from eight to twelve eggs
three times year, in April. May and June.
It takes these eggs six weeks to hatch.
The baby terrapin is just about as big as
the end of your thumb At one end of our
large crawl we have board like chicken
rooSt upon which the terrapin can crawl
into a sand pit, where they lay their eggs.
It is necessary to be very careful and get
the baby terrapin away from their parents
as soon as they hatch, else they will be
eaten on the spur of the moment.
''Terrapin have a certain amount Of in
telligence and a very large amount of
curiosity Through this prominent trait
they are captured The best way of catch
ing terrapin is for two men to go out IN a
rowboat with net. They row carefully
along until they BONE to likely spot for
terrapin. Then one man gets a stick and
raps sharply en- 1.-THE side of the boat sew
eral times.l II. there are any terrapin
around they will come to the surface just
as fast as they .h,ey san get there to see what is
them up with his little net. Another way,
used In the salt marshes, is for the darl1ies
to go tramping through the mud and wa
ter sometimes up to their waists. If they
pass any terrapin these will rise out of
the mud to see what the disturbance is.
l have agents ALI along the coast who col
Iect from the, darkies and fishermen in
their territory all the terrapin that are
caught Then make periodical trips in a
boat and bring them all in to the crawl.
There they are fattened and kept until
sold
'"Terrapin certainly have as much sense
as chickens, although no one would choose
one for pet. When the men go in to
feed them they whistle, and terrapin from
all over the crawl thousands of them,
come swimming through the water. piiing
over each other in their efforts to get
close to the man with the shrimp and
crabs"