The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-04-12
MAKES GOOD MONEY
IN REPTILE RANCH

vi
Republic. he sold me this ranch while
I was IN the east Showed me pictures
of the beautiful climate of California,
palms and roses. and said that's what
would come of the land when you get
the water on it.
We've. lived here goin' on ten years,
and it's rained once IN that time enough
to wet things real damp. You ought TO
have seen il. The whole desert was 4
garden, but if that only happened once
IN ten years you can't raise much, and
set down and figgered out how ] could
set even. We've been hOldin our own
on game an things, but mostly selim
products of the country"
Then there are products even where
il doesn't rain - said the listener.
You bet your life. Step this way"
The stranger followed the man around
the house out into the sun-dried yard,
whose pavement was as hard as adobe
could be made in a climate which knew
$50 degrees in the shade-and no shade.
There was a corral which might have
been built for chickens. IL was forty or
fifty feet long and 100 feet wide. the
fence not over three feet. too low TO
keep I'm chickens.
The man stepped over the fence. and
as he entered a dozen horned toads
started up out Of the sand and wriggleo
away. The man quickly picked one up,
a little fat. toadlke lizard Of reddish
brown and yellow tints, covered with
menacing soines It's head was SEEM
ingly triangular and protected by a
7 spiny collar. Its body was fat and
when the animal was on the ground IL
had way of fiattening out and sinking
. beneath the sand. IL had two very
small eyes. with brows of spikes, short
tail and long clawed legs.
i've turned horned-tosd farmer"
said the man. Il just nachully Cevel-
oped the resources Of the country. and
that's what they are. at least i'm this
secuon-horued toads and tarauJulas.
4 got the idea after I'd lived here a
year and durn near starved I saw a
notice in a paper that tourists wanted
cuTiosities and didn't stand on anything,
and especially hankered after horned
t0ads.
well. stranger. if I'd found a gold
mine or an oil well il couldn't have hit
me harder and 1 just knuckled TO it.
You couldn't walk ten steps without
raisiR' a horned toad So I set the chill
dren at work catchin' them. riggei up
the corral. which you see. and now we re
On the business farmin' horned tOads.
I can supply them by the dozen, carload,
ton. acre or square mile, and all sizes
/ from l0-cent piece up and down, and
cOlOrs-almOst any color you want.
Paint Paint nUthin, Suppose YOU
was a buyer and you kicked ON the
color I go into the shed over yonder
and bring out two like this" and. suit
/ ing the action to the word. the man held
out two tOads, not black. but very dark
brown. It's dead easy. I found that
when a horned toad sits on black he
grows darker. When ne is on white
sand he grows lighter. So I keep the
T ones 1 want black on dark ground and
the ones I want light on white ground.
How much? Why. I get two bits
apiece for all 1 can sell I'm good seasons.
Sometimes only half that. / fix them
I Up in ca ges. little wicker work things.
and sell them at the stations to tour
Z lists in some of the Arizona or New
Mexico towns. They bring 90 cents
They take because they. look 50
I fierce, but they are the gentlest things
[ in the world. They don't eat-that u.s.
not enough to require any care. Yet
they scare a woman who has never
seen one. They look as though they d
stick her full of spikes. but they won't.
There's only one queer thing that
[ they do, and it's mighty rare that they
! do that. but they have a way Of de-
| fendin' themselves that knocks bitin'
all boiler. III see if ] can get one to
/ do it
GOING over to the place the man
/ picked out several large lizards Then
/ he pinned a paper up against the wall
and began to scratch the spiny head OF
/ one Of the little animals. It seemed to
7 like il and bent its head around. rather
enjoying it,
He dropped this one and tried an0th-
( ct. then called his dog. an old hound.
and put the lizard down to his nose.
/ The lizard Missed. Then the man point
/ ed its head at the paper. about two feet
distant and called the dog. As the an
I imal touched the lizard with its nose
/ the lizard dropped its head and four or
/ FIVE drops OF a blood red substance
struck the paper.
Talk about your air guns" said the
man.
DO YOU know where that came
/ FROM"
The observer did not.
! We'll" said the man. you would
nschully think it came from the mouth.
| but its from the eyes" and he held up
the lizard and its eyes were Suffused
with blood. or something that looked
! like it. That's the only protection they
have. A little gland in the eye seems to
explode when they bend their head
down. and they can send two or three
drops three feet or more.
/ OF course. I don't depend upon toads.
/ I sell spiders. too. We have a big tar
antula here that lives in an open hole
and wanders about at night It's easy
I 20 catch, and I collect them and cent?
: pedes for the tourists
/ Then there is a spider that builds a
Z trap door. which it opens and shuts.
I that is a great seller But the great
hairy, ugly tarantuls is the one that
sells
The Mexicans have 4 great yarn TO
| the effect that II a tarantula era wis
I over YOU il will make you dance until
you drop dead, and that adds to the
/ terror OF owning the beast. People like
/ TO take home the awful dangers they
have escaped in the wild and woolly
west
'Oh, this ranch amt as barren as the
( chap that sold il To me thinks. Ii has
what they call a varieEated crop.
/ There's rattlesnakes. for instance. 7
sell the oil to rheumatic people. the skin
tourists buy for hatbands. the ratt1es
7 go as charms and the skeleton sells to
museums. Did you ever think Of il.
/ stranger. there amt a bit of any animal
[ that amt of some Use?
I round up centipedes here. ! can
I