The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-08-10
He HOPS INTO PROMINENCE
NOVEL INDUSTRY ENGLISHNTAN
PROPOSES STARTING HERE.
Will Breed 1 200, 900 TOads For Pro-
lection of the Farmers. Great
DeStroyerS of Insects.

Will Breed 1000, 900 loads For Pro-
lection of the Farmers. Great
Destroyers of Insects.
The despised toad, which is said
to be much misunderstood, is about
to hop into prominence and profit
if the plans of Richard Dray, an Eng
Gsh gardener of wide experience in
Australia and New Zealand, are sue
cessful. Mr.. Dray, who arrived in
this country recently, claims to be
the only hoptoad salesman in the
world. He will first get information
from the department of agriculture
at Washington as to the extent of
| the ravages of insect life in the
farming districts of the United
States In the afflicted localities he
will begin operations and start farms
in which he expects to breed 1,000,-
600 toads.
1T is amazing" says Mr.. Dray,
how farmers, even with all the gov
eminent aid they receive in agricul-
! tural education, know so little about
| the value of the common toad or how
much this useful creature deserves
| encouragement and protection. If
| thought your American humOrists
would not ridicule me too mercilessly
| | would advocate, and l do intend to
advocate, the organization of a Socie-
ty for the Protection of the Toad, but
| | can fancy the way the changes
could be rung on my being hopping
mad because the idea did not appeal,
or how some of the funny men might
suggest, as was once done in Mel
bourne, that better name would be
| the Society for the Propagation of
Warts.
Il will stand the funmaking if /
can convince the farmers that the
toad is their friend and the enemy
of destructive insect life. Cutworms
that destroy millions of dollars
worth of wheat and rye stalks are it's
| favorite food, and after the cutworms
come the tent caterpillar, the weevil,
the grasshopper and the cricket. The
| food capacity of our Warty-backed
friends is prodigious. In the stom-
ach of one ordinary sized toad there
| were found II acknowledged
| worms; in another % gypsy moth
| OoICl PlIldlo, III dnOlnSI ~ IOSSUuSo
all taken within seven hours. 1t
is estimated that one toad will de-
your in 80 days 700 cut worms, / 900
ants, 1900 weevils, lao ground beet
les and 600 myriapods. These are
all harmful insects to vegetation, and
nature seems to have created in the
toad an appetite for them rather than
for the beneficial insects.
"As high as a shilling apiece has
been paid by English gardeners for
full-grown toads. The number of
tOads in the gardens of England is
nearly as small as it is in Australia,
and artificial propagation has been
introduced.
''As destroyer of snails, sowbugs,
weevils and injurious forms of ami
NAL and insect life that infest green
houses there is nothing in the world
to compare in value with the common
toad. In the Rouen chronological
laboratory an unaccountable number
of snails was exterminated by the
introduction of 100 toads and 80
frogs. At Maulden, Mass, a collec-
ton of orchids valued at SIS, 200 was
severely injured through the attacks
of myriapods and sowbugs. Fifty
tOads were introduced, and the dam
age from the cause ceased within Is
days. The common greenhouse rose
weevil can be exterminated rapidly
by toads."