The morning journal-courier., 1908-11-05
An Englishman Has Just Pur- chased a Farm on Which to
 Raise Butterflies,
TEN THOUSAND A YEAR
That Number Raised Successfully-- Honey Placed Tn Flowers for
 Food--GOod Profits,


 The exact address Is Burnston, and the name of the exceedingly patient farmer is II, w. Head. For Hve- and-twenty years Mir, Head has been studying the cultivation of the cater pillar, and for long time past has commercializcd his vast knowledge.
 But 1t is only within very recent times that Mir Heads clientele has been extended enough to justify his present novel undertaking.
 The name of Head has long been a familiar one with collectors of lepi- doptera, There are more who confess to this costly hobby than the layman wots of. Every year MT. Head rears and sells upwards of 30,000 butter flies and moths, many of his finest specimens going abroad.
 This large total is made up of A thousand different species, ranging from common cabbage ries to the costllest of Moon moths or Gambler well Beauties, sold at prices varying from few coppers to five or ten pounds.
 Mir. Head sees great results from hyhridizatlon of butterflies. So far his experiments in this direction have been extremely successful. Weird combinations in color with curious patternings, like Oriental carpets, and strange vagaries Of shape. promise new and startling species, which are calculated to stir collectors Into an activity of excitement and promise future Of limitless scope
 Mr Head does not supply live but. terfies. His livestock does not go beyond the caterpillar or the fertile eggs of any particular kind of butter. 1 fly or moth in stock.
 This stock is inventoried in pc. riodical price lists, which circulate ir the strangest of places. In the home of the workingman, the mansion of the millionaire or the playbox of the public schooboy, these peculiar price lists find a sanctuary
 Tn fact. some of the butterfly farm i CTS most enthusiastic customers art found among British schoolhoys who ! are catered for with special lint of assorted. unset lepidopters" al 2 1 shilling (94 cents) dozen.
 No order is too small for thu breeder of butterflies He is willing 10 provide single specimen as tc stock one of the parks Of the Londor County council, suggestion which has already been under considera | ton.
 And how does Mir. Head house hi | stock? Here, again, ono meets in ecnuity Most of the caterpillars re main in the open where Mir. Hoac l has provided them with A Luxurious ] feeding ground. planted with moro ! than 2.000 plants, particularly adapt ] cd for food. Here they are permitted | to browse in sections. SO that on, ! batch of trees is enabled Co recove | from tho effects of the gastronomit onslaught while tho other is unde ! tribute.
 How They Are Fed.
 When the caterpillar has taken up on itself the more picturesque appear ance of butterfly or moth 1t zoe l into more protective quarters, Ther are two glasshouses, the larger Is | hundred feet long. and the smaller which is extremely hot. and is uset a,ta f n 70 . 1 thirty feet
 These are filled with all kinds of ia vorite flowers in petpetual state Q blossom. These flowers are painted with honey twice every day, and tn many- -huod insects thrive gloriously ol these ingenuiously applied spoIls iron the bee. Water fig supplied to then in the form of spray which Is forced into their great wire cages by tn aid of syringe.
 Rare catcrpillars, leading the open air life are protected from the indis crIminating bcaks of marauding bird hy wire netting. Eggs, however ar not permitted to take this risk, bu arc patched under cover
 When the caterpillar decides to he come chrysalis he Is placed in a box and the box is hung from a tre wrapped in protected shroud of cal leo. Yet the adventurous sparrow of Scarborough have solved the prob lem of how to extract q somnolon caterpillar from it's calico shroud, Tn mortality is sometimes enormous
 The art of butterfly breeding is no chid's play. Mr. Head is obliged t' work twenty hours out of ever, twcnty-four during the summer of tn year, and the winter permits but littl more time for leisure, The work | healthy and is always interesting and although the profits, after the grea expenditure of labor are not great they are sufficient to place buttertl breeding on a sound financial basis