The Washington herald., 1913-10-19
Settles Strike Promptly.

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Settles Strike Promptly.
All this time Opel and his assistants were
dressing and shipping frogs by the dozens OF
crates. Then strike came The boys re-
fused to work unless their wages were raised.
The young employer grasped the situation
quickly. There were too many frogs on hand
10 permit a long suspension Of operations.
big feed was planned for the boys and they
returned to work the following day
Then came second fall in the market this
time in theprices of dressed frogs' legs. This
time there was no resource. The prices OF
live frogs were still too low to permit ship
ping them alive at profit. The few boys
who were still catching frogs were turned to
dressing them. and before long all the frogs
on hand were disposed of with little loss.
This was two months after Opel had started
his business. At one time he had been s.. 900
ahead in the game. Now. with ali frogs on
his hands and all expenses paid, his net profit
amounted to $3.50. And with this money he
started his college education.
Since then Opel has studied every avail
able natural history that deals with frogs and
all governmental and private treatises on the
animal that he could obtain. His knowledge
Of the frogs habits. Its enemies. its raising.
etc, has greatly increased through these
studies. When he Is through college he in
tends to start a frog ranch somewhere IN
Minnesota and stay in that business for the
remainder OF his life. For this his plans have
been carefully laid.
First, he intends to buy or rent a small
tract OF marshy land. where he will have two
ponds dug. These. he figures. will be enough
until the business has secured permanent
footing, when he viii increase the size Of the
Matching the spawn and develaping the tad
poles and the other for the raising Of the ma
ture frogs. The Matching pond viii be about
thirty feet long. fifteen feet wide. and three
feet deep. the other about sixty feet in length.
forty feet in width. and about eight or ten feet
in depth. Each pond is to be surrounded by
al board fence two feet high set into the
ground at least six inches to prevent mice
and snakes from entering. A board will be
placed natwise Of the fence to prevent the
frogs from crawling or jumping out
Ten Quarts of Spawn Needed.
To hatch 1900 tadpoles at one time, ten
quarts of spawn will be needed, which can
easily be obtained in any marsh or low
place where the frogs congregate In the
breeding season. Until the tadpoles have
food only Twenty-fve pounds of fsh. or
twenty pounds OF liver. will feed 10000 tad.
poles one week. Opel estimates. When the
hind legs appear the food must be lessened.
as the animal stores all food in its lizard
like body. When nothing but the tails re-
main. all feeding must be stopped until they
have disappeared entirely. Then the young
frogs will be placed in another pond.
The frogs viii be kept in different rearing
ponds, according to age. because there is
danger OF their eating one another. 1t is
said the tadpoles will eat the eggs the
young frogs the tadpoles and egga the year
lings the eggs, tadpoles, and young frogs,
and the older frogs have been known to eat
the yearlings. Therefore, divisions between
the frogs, according to age. IL absolutely
necessary. The ponds in which the frogs
are to te confined will have a mud bottom
one or two feet deep to enable them to hi
bernate during winter. Decaying refuse will
be placed on the banks Of the ponds and on
floats in the water TO attract insects on
which the frogs feed. Later on Opel intends
to build more rearing ponds and enlarge the
pond. The ponds for the larger
frogs are 10 be nearly an acre In size so
as to give them plenty OF range
When frogs are being grown constant care
must be exercised against their many enc
mics. Among these are the crow, heron.
owl, hawk, snake, fish, and water beetle
All can easily be guarded against except
the water beetle. These bugs must be re-
moved whenever they appear and the Iarva
must be carefully SKINNED from the surface
Of the water. The water beetles are known
to have killed thousands Of tadpoles in
few hours