The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-05
SAID TO Be BIG PROFIT
IN THE "FREAH'' FARMS
Skunk Raising, in Particular,
Brings Good Results-Other
Stocks.
CARE OF YOUNG SKUNKS


NEW YORK, March 4-Several French
dealers in animals are coming here in the
neutrality-suspicious. line steamer Moltke to
purchase stock for an alligator farm which
they propose starting in the south of France.
Alligator skin has become so highly priced
throughout France that the animal dealers
believe it will pay we'll to raise the gators
on this, the first farm of its kind in the
world.
Not long ago President Loubet received
a present of a hunting suit of alligator
skin. and the novelty OF the thing has been
extensively advertised in the French press.
The skin is said TO be growing scarcer
each year, and there is always great de-
mand for it for boots. shoes. hand bags.
writing pads. portfolios and toilet articles.
An animal dealer near the New York
city hall, whose trade is confined TO wild
beasts, remarked the other day that freak
animal farms are springing up in hundreds
of places throughout the United Stated. He
said that he bought an interest in a snake
farm started by a friend of his near Cation.
Ill, few years ago and that it paid a 50
per cent. dividend last year.
This snake farm explained the dealer,
lis not for the purpose of raising reptiles
posed. The cultivation of the snakes is for
medicinal purposes only. The farm con-
slsts OF seventy-three acres of virgin prairie.
There are eighty mounds of earth prepared
in such a way that the snakes use them
for nests, and there are dozen nests to
each mound. A patent medicine concern is
the chief buyer of the snakes. This firm
alone took 500 snakes last year at s.. Is each.
The contract with the firm calls for snakes
not Jess than four feet in length
CARE OF YOUNG SNAKES
''The young snakes are as carefully cared
for as if they were lambs. Some mother
snakes are neglectful and do not properly
rear their young The infant snakes arc
taken close to the house on the farm, placed
in one corner Of a good-sized lot and fed
with bugs Several very large snakes are
used as household pets by the manager
Their fangs are drawn, of course. The
house has always been overrun with mice
and the snakes make better mousers than
cats.
1.-The manager has one man to help him
in his work about the farm, and the only
precaution they take against the reptiles is
TO wear pair or thick boots. The only
thing that the manager complains of is
that his neighbors never visit him. y total
of 1s512 snakes were sold from the farm
last year"
There are about ten skunk farms scat
tered over the country. One of the largest
is operated by r. A. Renick, a farmer in
Greenbriar county, West Virginia Captain
Adrian A.f Perkins; Of BRADLEY, Me-, has an n
are raised for their hide and oil and the in
| dustry needs no protection.
Captain Perkins began his skunk farm
with three female and two male skunks and
| at the end of five months found himself the
! proud owner of thirty-four baby skunks,
nearly nearly haif OF which were almost pure
| covered that the fatter skunks had eaten
| up all their offspring, so he built restrict
| ing fences when the next filters came.
The Skunks feed upon anything so long
| as 1T is good, but they like grasshoppers
| better than anything else. After being
| killed and skinned the skunk is roasted
| over a slow fire for it's oil. This usually
/ sells for 50 a gallon to druggists. The black
| skins fetch about 1925 A skunk will yield
| from one TO three pints of oil. The average
| is about quart Last year Western
| judge gave a woman divorce because her
| husband was a skunk farmer.
the culture or leeehes has grown con-
| siderably within few years and there are
now five leech farms in the country. Many
doctors still believe in the bleed him.
policy.
Leech farms in Europe are more profta-
| BILE than those here, however. The Euro
pean leech is an Unsuitable sucker and will
draw, from half an ounce to an ounce of
! blood all alone. One leech farm consists
| of forty acres of meadow. 1t was originally
sowed with 1900 leeches. The crop had to
have plenty of water and lots of fresh blood
so the farmer turned in fresh blood from a
| nearby slaughter house
| RAISING OF LEECHES.
The leeches, if profitably cared for, are
| very profitable A monopoly of taking
| leeches in Morocco was once sold for $70,-
600. Before Americans began leech farming
Australia used to export to Europe and
America 2,500,0OO leeches per year. At one
| time France alone consumed 100000 an
nually.
| a Vermont farmer makes $500 a year
raising elk He sells them to wealthy men
| who have private preserves. Frank D.
| Bull, who was once a New York neWsbOy
| has accumulated fortune raising elk He
| started an elk farm at Big Piney creek, at
| the foot Of the Rockies and his first sale
| of elk TO the late Austin Corbin. George
| Gould and DR.. w. Seward Webb afterward
patroniZed him.
| A farmer who spent half his life raising
| chickens began last year snail farm and
| his neighbors near Easton, Pa, say that
| he is literally coming money. He began
| the industry by importing 300 of the mol
| lusks. His great rOuble was in acclimatiz-
| ing them. He fed them on wine and meal.
| as the Romans did, and is now able to
| supply the demand.
| Goose farming is twice as profitable as
| raising hens. An Indiana man who start
| ed the first goose farm in the State found
! that 1000 geese reared six goslings each a
| year. AT 1.-THE end of the second year the farm
| er had AZ, 900 geese A pound of down sells
for 81 and a pound of coarse feathers for
| % cents and every goose yielded half a
| pound of each annually.
| Other freak farms are devoted to the
| culture of moles, white rats seals lions
| frogs, red foxes and bears. There are thir-
| ty-five large ostrich farms in the United
| States.