Part III.] Pond Fish Culture. 157 



fence them in very much. Thus far our experience would in- 

 dicate that the animals do not jump very high, though they can 

 make long jumps. We have not noticed any of them climbing 

 up the fence to look over or get out.* We would not undertake 

 to say, however, just what they would do if food got scarce. 

 Starving animals rapidly develop new and sometimes unex- 

 pected characteristics. 



The ponds should be thoroughly stocked with goldfish and 

 minnows, or any kind of fish that will eat waste and vegetable 

 matter and increase the food supply for the frogs. Crayfish 

 might also be raised for the frogs, but we are in doubt about 

 the advisability of raising a lot of these animals in the same 

 ponds with the fish. However, it might work all right, when 

 we come to consider that we want to raise a crop of frogs and 

 not fish. Of course the ponds should be well supplied with va- 

 rious kinds of aquatic plants to attract insects and to furnish 

 the vegetable-eating fish with a constant supply of food. The 

 tadpoles also get their supply of food from the vegetable mat- 

 ter that the ponds produce. A great many insects will be at- 

 tracted by this vegetable matter, and especially to the semi- 

 aquatic plants that should grow along the shores. These in- 

 sects will furnish much food for the frogs, and when the insect 

 food is not sufficient there will be a supply of young vegetable- 

 eating fish in the water for the batrachians. Bullfrogs bring 

 a very high price in the market. The dressed saddles were 

 quoted this year at from fifty cents to a dollar per pound. 



Mo7iey in Raising Bullfrogs. 



Many people have an idea that a very considerable amount 

 of money can be made by raising frogs. Our experience here 

 at the Hatchery is, that if we get too many tadpoles in any one 

 pond they will get a disease and begin to die ; but our greatest 

 difficulty is when thousands of tadpoles begin to change into 

 frogs. When these frogs are in the fish ponds the bass and 

 catfish will take care of them, but when placed in a pond where 

 there is nothing to destroy them it does not seem possible to 

 supply or produce enough food in any one locality to feed a 

 very great number of them ; and so they also develop some kind 

 of a disease, due, perhaps, to the fact that they are not prop- 

 erly fed, which kills them off. At such times the larger speci- 

 mens feed upon the smaller ones. We have taken as many as 

 five small frogs from the stomach of one large specimen. 



Perhaps some enthusiast who desires to get into the bullfrog 

 business and make it a paying proposition can solve some of 

 these problems and work the proposition out on a paying basis. 

 I imagine if one had from ten to fifty or more acres of swampy 

 ground, mostly covered with water, that a goodly number of 



* Bullfrogs can climb up almost any fence, but seldom do it when in 

 ponds; a flat board projecting six inches fi'om the top of the fence pre- 

 vents them from climbing over. 



