Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1914-05-28

CatCh'h9 tHe OuttefTlieS and Moths
Only a Small Part of the Work, as
Real Difficulty Is Experienced In
Raising Misunderstanding as Well as
Profitable Duty.
Truckee. Gala California girl with
the astonishing name of Ximcna Nc,
GlaShan has the distinction of being
the first professional butterfly farmer
in this country. She began the work bv
mere chance, but she has made a sue.
cess of it by dint of hard work and at.
tention to scientific detail.
1t sounds very pretty to be called. as
Miss McGlashan frequently is, "the
butterfly princess" But this particular
princess is Il mighty Industrious one.
In the spring and summer she is often
busy from daylight until after 10
O'Clock at night.
This little fact is worth mentioning,
as Miss McGlashan has received hun
drcdS of letters from women and girls
who apparently want to found a whole
dynasty of butterfly Processes. They
have heard that this young girl, with
out capital or previous experience, is
making $50 Il week out of butterflies
and moths. That sounds pretty good to
them. But their enthusiasm may suffer
a relapse when they read the whole
story.
She started her farm" near here a
year and Il half ago. She was planning
then to be a teacher, and when one day
she saw her father showing his little
%erandchild how to capture a butterfly
IT occurred to her that the knowledge
might come in handy in her w career
as an instructor of school children.
Her father readily consented to show
how the trick was done and casually
limited that she could make more
money out of butterflies than in peda-
gogy. He 'sugared" some trees for
her, fixed her up a lantern and some
cyanide in jars. showed her how to
catch moths at night by placing the
mouth of the jar over the unwary
~feaSter on the sugar, and without more
ado she was launched on her career.
Inside of two weeks she shipped
1900 moths and butterflies and receiv-
ed $75 in return. In ten weeks she
sold over 10000 specimens at Il fiat
price of 3 cents apiece and had over
$500 in return. In addition, she had
on hand about 10000 eggs, larvae and
pupae, which would hatch out in due
season. These really constituted her
farm md are the important end of the
business.
Catching the butterflies and moths
is only Il small part of the work. The
real job is raising them. Only perfect
specimens are saleable, and it is a
ticklish undertaking to capture these
fragile creatures without iniuring
them. Many of them are already Il
tritie damaged. They may have lost
an antcnna or Il piece of Il wing.
The first thing this young entomolo
giSt does with her captured Speci-
mems, therefore, is to sort them over
carefully. She liberatcs the males that
are not perfect so that they may go
out and propagate more of their spe-
cies. The imperfect female specimens
shel puts in paper bags, one to each
bag, So that she will have their eggs to
add to her stock.
This is where the real work begins.
In each bag she puts food for the oc-
cupant, Butterflies will not deposit
their eggs unless confined in Il gauze
bag or its equivalent and supplied with
their particular food. Every day Miss
McGlashan feeds her butterflies WITH
dried apples soaked in water contain
ing Il little honey or sugar.
With this treatment she persuades
them to lay their eggs ON the inside Of
he bag, Some of them deposit as mang
as 200 or 300 eggs. When they have
finished they die. The eggs hatch in
varying periods, some in Il few days.
others only after the lapse Of months.
Miss McGlashan has them in test
tubes where she can keep track of their
development. During the winter she
puts the tubes in cold storage to pre-
vent the cggS Matching before the prop
cr food plants are ready.
When the eggs come out she has an
other period of feeding before her, She
GATORS to the tastes Of these little
worms rs carefully as if she were n
high salaried chef supplying a cuisine
for Il lot of c%picures, She experiments
with all kinds of leaves till she finds
what cen most tempting to the an
petites of her charges.
Some Of these she keeps in candy
jars. II she has many hundreds of one
kind she places them in Il tight barrel,
covering the open head with gauze. in
the bottom of each jar or barrel she
puts several inches Of dirt or leaf mold.
us the larvae like to hide in it in the
daytime, Fresh leaves must he put In
every day, the old food taken out and
the receptacle kept clean.
When the perfect moths and butter
tiles finally emerge from the pupae they
are ready for shipment and prices are
good,