FROGS: THEIR NATURAL HISTORY AND UTILIZATION. 



By A, H. Wright, Cornell University. 



INTRODUCTION. 



From time to time since Seth Green's day efforts have been made 

 by our best fish-culturists to raise frogs; but in all this period no 

 definite successful mode of procedure has been evolved. Some of 

 these workers became^ "skeptical" and from ''personal study and 

 experience" were made "unbehevers." Others wrote about frog cul- 

 ture in an effort to supply information when they had nothing to 

 give. StiU others gave what little they had of value and com- 

 mented: ^ "We are just as glad as you are that this bullfrog story is 

 finished." Finally, the most serious group*' announced complete 

 success in "their preliminary experiments," and their efforts were 

 sincerely appreciated by both the public and the culturists; but these 

 experiments were abandoned. 



Several writers have taken advantage of the public's intense desire 

 for knowledge on this subject and have perpetrated all sorts of hoaxes 

 and fakes on the credulity of their readers. Periodically some news- 

 papers write of mythical "frog farms" for space fillers. Magazines 

 occasionally accept similar articles, which should never have seen 

 the li^ht, and at present one must needs be on guard against the 

 half-digested, hastily issued, worthless literature which would lead 

 the uninitiated to believe the problem is entirely solved and that frog 

 culture is wholly feasible. Too frequently the public seems to be fed 

 on prettily written, fanciful speculation, and, as a consequence, frog 

 culture receives much mideserved ridicule. 



Notwithstanding all this deception and lack of definite procedure 

 and in spite of the fact that little of importance has appeared to 

 encourage it, the public continues to be vitally interested in the 

 possibilities of frog culture. Many a reader of "The Virginian," 

 after the dissertation on the "frawg business," has asked if there is 

 really anything in it. The experiments which were started several 

 years a^o at the Pennsylvania State fish hatcheries aroused astonish- 

 ing and widespread public comment. The commissioner of fisheries 

 of Pennsylvania said : ^ 



The interest was confined not to Pennsylvania alone but extended to nearly all 

 parts of the United States. Newspapers, trade papers, and magazines commented on 



o Mather, Fred: Modern fish culture in fresh and salt water, pp. 301, 302. New York, 1900. 



6Dyche, L. L.: Ponds, pond fish, and pond-fish culture, p. 158. State Department of Fish and Game. 

 Kansas. Topeka, 1914. 



c Report, Department of Fisheries of Pennsylvania from December, 1904, to Nov. 30, 1905, p. 51. 

 Harrisburij, igor.. 



<* Loc. cit. pp. 51, 52. 



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