The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-09-12
RAISES BIG FROG CROPS.
MISS SIEGE OF CONTRA COSTA
 COUNTY, CAL.
Takes Up Profitable Branch of Farm

Ine IrogS or contra costa county have for several months been in winter quarters; that is to say, are deep in Contra Costa's mud. Four miles north of Berkeley is California's greatest summer resort for the bullfrog and the infantile tadpoIe. This is on the farm of Miss Edith Stege. Here the eroak- ing amphibian is entertained in man. ner worthy of a beast that brings from three dollars and half to eight dollars Q dozen.
 Three ponds have been constructed in the rear of the grounds. the largest be- ing two hundred feet long. Each ob- long of water is the center of a bit of landscape that at this time of the year Is tinctured with all the greens and browns and secret shadows that au- tumn brings to earth. Lilies, oleanders and weeping willows, tapestried with vine and moss, and ponderous with gloom, surround the temples of this frogland and filter the sunlight that falls upon it. ...
 Here in the twilight of springtime the frog bulges his cheeks and grunts his throaty melody across the pond. An- other takes up the chant and then an- other, until the precinct sounds as If the earth's axis were out of gear and creaked for lack of oiling. Besides the pleasure he takes in eating and singing, the frogs serious occupation is to be caught and eaten. This duty he shirks as long as possible He will squat, seemingly absent-minded with spring time fancies and blinking at the moon, but at the suspicion of a footfall looks not before he leaps, but drops into the water and goes down like al ost hope.
 Thousands of these croakers assemble in Miss Steges ponds every year. They have more than paid for their board and lodging. When Miss Stege fell heir to the place there was mortgage on the farm; the frogs helped pay it off. Multitudes of the soft-flanked batrach- fans gave their lives and legs in the general massacre which resulted, and from the profits of which the farm, with Its cows and chickens and lone green parrot, was saved to the owner.
 Last season was not run to a great profit at the froggery. The ponds had been left to breed The frog eggs were thick as sago pudding. The big frogs ate the ulittle frogs, thereby becoming too stout for food purposes, and the small ones becoming too scarce to be troubled.
 The size of the frogs at Stege (the station is named after the principal landownr) Is a topic which is seldom mentioned without preliminary avowals of truth and ability to prove the same. However, without taking space for such purposes, it may be said that the larger specimens of bulIfrugs at Stege are all most as big as a large dove and are wholesaled at eight dollars dozen. What they appear rated at on the bill of fare is a matter of conscience with the printer A frog has been known to swallow a newly matched chicken pay ing the wages of gluttony, albeit with his life.
 Two years ago a shipment of the ed ible size was sent from this ranch to the island of Hilo, of the Hawaiian group. Of the eight hundred and forty shipped In water barrels only two died on the way. Frogs are not native to oceanic islands, the salt water spelling their migration. It is now said that the evening landscapes of Filo are noisy
 Miss Edith stege, proprietress of the
 Miss Edith SStege, broprietress of the one hundred and fifteen acres which includes the frog ranch, has given it the favor of her daily cultivation. The ranch is not mere butter and egg place. It is the owners occupation, her recreation and her romance. It is beautiful, deep treed and romantic.
 There are no storks at Stege; the frogs have no other king than the pro- prietress, who received them and their domain from her foster father. When the frog puddles are filled with their edible population Miss Stege gives them the care of scientist. At the time that the amphibian loses his gills and when his hearts two compartments be. come a three chambered organ, as with reptiles, he is subject to many dangers of his constitution.
 Tt is then, said the manageress oi the froggery, with wink, that they are liable to pneumonia, so put mus. tard plasters on their chests until this crisis of their lives is past and they are well developed froggies and entitled tc be eaten.,'
 As soon as the hibernating season re. ceives the touch of warm weather one early frog bubbles his way to the sur face of the pond and sings shrill ditty to his old college chum on the opposite
 bank Others arrive and the puddles are not long in becoming populous
 The frogs are. dull skinned then, but
 sooh become corpulent and bright. IT month the new generation is likely .tc
 be at the. age of majority. He is ther
 caught as he eroaks by his native wa. ters, is sent to the restaurant, where he
 croaks again; then is prepared for his
 destination and croaks no more.-Sar
 Francisco Examiner. TADA NErcInt sTTycctT IT'D