The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-18

friends suggesting that he make a stew but he said he was going to take an aX, bust mp the gopher and feed it to his chickens. Then l was sorry had given the gopher to such a cruel man. From the foregoing you will have doubtless concluded that gophers arc edible. though tastes differ, they are considered by many as very palata- ble, and are extensively used for food by the dwellers of portions of Florida 1 They live in the sandy barrens and subsist principally on grass. They car live without food and water for weeks and have been told by persons whose veracity I have no reason to doubt that they actually fatten under such conditions. The gopher belongs to the family of reptiles, because, like a baby, it creeps. It's Latin name is Festuda Carolina. but as it probably would not answer by that name il would be well to address it by its com mon name of Florida chicken
 There is another animal called go- pher, but it resembles a ground squir- rel somewhat, and to that I will in- troduce you at some future time.
 Terrapin stew, green turtle soup and gopher hash are all good to those who like them and the family has many connections who are more or less dis tinguished. Over in South Carolina 15 years ago quite a business was done in the town in which I lived by ship ping the "cooters," which were plenti- full In the ponds in the neighborhood, to New York, where they were doubtless served at the swell restaurants as dia- mond back terrapin Speaking of coo- ters, I am reminded of story told of the early days of the South Carolina railroad somewhere in the 40's. The trains were stopped almost anywhere to take on passengers and schedules were somewhat irregular but on one occasion when the engineer was doing his best to make up some time lost, an old darkey was seen energetically way ing red bandana handkerchief: the train was brought to a standstill and the conductor jumped down, exclaiming: What's the matter?" The old darkey. holding up by it's tail a diminutive spec imen, said: Mister, don't you want to buy a cooter?" The conductors reply was not recorded, but for all I know the old darlxey may be running yet.
 There are in Valley creek, near Bes- semer, great many soft shelled tur- ties, whose Latin name is too long to write, but they make fine hash; l tried one once. but nobody but the major and I would eat any the others had seen 1t alive. but we found il good.
 At Key West green turtle steaks are much esteemed. I thought when l saw them on the bill of fare that l was going to get something like a outlet. but I found that the meat was ground up and cooked in pats or balls like Hamburger steaks. Some of the turtles captured off Key West and oth- CT Florida keys, weigh as much as 600 pounds.
 The female turtle, on a moonlight night, crawls up on the beach and after excavating a hole in the sand lays a great quantity of eggs, hundred or two, or about as many as an English sparrow will lay in d season, then she covers them up and scratches up the sand for yards around so as to fool the wild cats, bears and crows who are very fond of the eggs, and having done that she slides into the gulf again.
 Down at Choctahatchee bay and some of the other bays indenting the coast of Florida, a great many small tarra- pin are caught in seines and after be- ing taken up are fed Ato hogs, who ap- pear to be as fond of them as they ap- pear to be of everything else.
 When the troops were in Tampa I heard a story of Florida hog of the family of razor backs, and rather a poor specimen at that. Two of the sol diers had been down town and while there had imbibed rather freely of lem