6 FROGS. 



our work in this direction at considerable lengths, and all approvingly. Letters 

 from private citizens were received from nearly every State in the country asking 

 for further information. These were followed by communications from fish com- 

 missions and fish-culturists in the same vein. 



In former years, at the sessions of the fishery and fish-cultural 

 societies, frog culture was a frequent topic of inquiry, though not of 

 extended discussion. To-day the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries receives 

 countless inquiries and requests for literature, for information, and 

 for possible sources of breeding stock, and this report is written to 

 supply the information which must precede aU careful experimental 

 work on frog culture. 



The difficulties encountered in many of the preceding efforts have 

 arisen from lack of knowledge of the natural history of our native spe- 

 cies of frogs. Such knowledge is an absolutely necessary premise to in- 

 telligent, successful endeavor. Often the best of the previous experi- 

 menters were not sure whether they had bullfrog or leopard-frog 

 spawn, and thought that possibly the bullfrog bred twice a year 

 when it breeds but once a year, or considered that bullfrog tadpoles 

 transformed the same year they were hatched or in the following 

 spring, neither of which conditions obtains. A careful critical 

 study of most of the previous efforts reveals uncertainties of this sort, 

 one of the most marked of which is the lack of positively identified 

 stock with which to begin. Here, as in every other farming enterprise, 

 it is necessary to have the seed or stock true to name. Fortified with 

 this precaution and equipped with some of the cardinal points in the 

 life history of the species to be raised, the prospective frog culturist 

 stands a far better chance of success than in a blind ' ' hit-or-miss " 

 endeavor. 



COMMERCIAL FROG HUNTING. 



SOURCE OF SUPPLY. 



The market is yet solely reliant upon the natural supply of frogs. 

 Of this industry, previous to 1900, F. M. Chamberlain, of the U. S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries, remarked as follows : ^ 



The business of taking frogs for market has greatly increased in recent years. It is 

 now carried on in all sections of the United States and is of economic importance in 

 about 15 States, while in nearly all the remaining States and Territories frogs are taken 

 for local or home consumption [in quantities] of which it is impossible to get a statis- 

 tical accoimt. The States supplying the largest quantities for the markets are (Cali- 

 fornia, Missouri, New York, Arkansas, Maryland, Virginia, Oliio, and Indiana. More 

 frogs are taken in New York than in any other State, but on account of their com- 

 paratively small size their value is less than in Missouri and California. The Canadian 

 Province of Ontario also yields a rather large supply of market frogs. As ascertained by 

 inquiries of the U. S. Fish Comonission, the annual catch in the United States is but 

 little less than 1,000,000, with a gross value to the hunters of about $50,000. The 

 yearly cost of frogs and frog legs to the consumers is not less than $150,000. 



The localities in which especially important frog hunting is done are the marshes of 

 the western end of Lake Erie and Lewis and Grand Reservoirs, in Ohio; the marshes of 

 the Sacramento and San Joaqiiin Rivers, Calif.; the valley of the Kankakee River, 

 Ind.; Oneida Lake, Seneca River, and other waters of northern New York; and the 

 St. Francis River and the sunken lands of the Mississippi River, in Arkansas and 

 Missouri. 



* * * The prices received for frogs vary greatly and depend on the condition of 

 the market, the size of the frogs, and the locality. Dressed legs yield the hunters 

 from 12§ to 50 cents a pound, and live frogs from 5 cents to $4 a dozen. In the Kan- 

 kakee Valley, Ind., for example, the prices received by the hunters are 75 cents a 



a A manual of flsh-culture based on the methods of the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Revised 

 edition, pp. 252, 253. U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Washington, 1900. 



