The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-12-23
WOMAN RAISES MICE
MISS LATHRoP FINDS RODENT
FARM IS PROFITABLE.
Supplies Medical Colleges and UnIver.
stiles with Animals for ExperI-
ment-WaItzing Mice Have
Great Market Value.


Boston.-In the face Of all tradition
about woman's insane fear of a rat or
a mouse, Misc Abbie e. G. Lathrop, of
CRANKY, Mass, is earning her living by
managing a rat and mice farm. She
says frankly she was born with fear
of the rodent tribe, but soon con-
quered it when she found there was
money in them.
Miss Lathrop has at present more
than 1,600 rats and mice of every
variety, which she tenderly cares for
and will put on the market as fast as
they can be prepared. The stock Is all
carefully penned and, in spite of their
gnawing abilities, it is rare that rat
or mouse escapes.
Miss Lathrop began breeding mice
as business about five years ago and
the industry has grown rapidly. She
began with few boxes in an old
shed She soon needed more boxes
and now the whole place, inside and
outside, is fairly alive with mice. One
house has been built exclusively for
them, and every available inch Of
shed room about the place has been
utilized. Miss Lathrop will put up
still more buildings, and says she has
no idea to what limits the industry
may go.
II seems as II there would be no
market for mice, but there is a good
one. At first they went wholly to
bird stores and fanciers to be sold
again as pets. They also figured in
window displays where with training,
they performed little tricks. Then
there came a big demand for waltzing
mice. Later a still more promising
field opened up and is her best paying
line. namely, supplying medical col
leges with mice for experimentation.
The University of Philadelphia and
the medical departments of various
other institutions throughout the
country now have become her regular
customers and she ships mice to them
every month. The little creatures are
inoculated for all sorts of disease,
their condition carefully watched and
the progress of the disease noted and
recorded. So great during the past
N'ul nus bCNli Nllt Vail ioi hiiSC thoS
Miss Lathrop has hardly been able to
ship them fast enough and has been
obliged to refuse many orders.
In addition to the mice and rats
Miss Lathrop has about 200 guinea
pigs and a large number of ferrets.
The waltzing mice she Is particularly
careful Of for they are rare speci-
bot
These she keeps in the house, where
there will be no danger of chill from
cold They are exceedingly funny lit
tie creatures, always waltzing airily
up and down the cage floor instead of
gliding along as their commoner
brothers do
The mice are kept in small pens.
usually a dozen or so in each, and
these are ranged down the house or
shed, several tiers high, on both sides
of a center aisle. The mice shrink
back into the corner of their cages
when a stranger is In the house. but
they seem to recognize Miss Lathrop's
voice and will rush to the front of
their pens when she appears. They
require constant care and watching.
Food and water must be regularly sup
piled, and all the cages and the num-
Der of inhabitants in each must be
constantly watched, for they breed so
rapidly they have to be continually
shifted over into new cages. Often
she finds SO many mice in a pen that
a few hours more would mean serious
and if she were not con-
stantly shipping them off she would
be overrun with them. To feed them
she puts in as much as 500 worth of
grain and also several tons of green
forage.