January, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



25 



The World's Largest Butterfly Farm 



By Joseph Heighton 



Photos, by Charles Lavell 



OT infrequently it has been asserted that 

 Englishmen lack, enterprise. No such ac- 

 cusation, however, can be leveled against 

 Mr. L. W. Newman, of Bexley, Kent — 

 one of the most charming of England's 

 oldest towns. Mr. Newman is but a young 

 man just past his thirtieth birthday; and 

 yet in the last six years he has built up a farm, the live stock 

 on which numbers anything between 80,000 and 100,000 

 head of some 200 different breeds. This enormous stock 

 feeds and thrives upon a single acre of land; and yet the 

 latter is not overcrowded; for 

 the breeds are simply moths 

 and butterflies. Six years ago 

 Mr. Newman was occupying 

 the position of bookkeeping 

 clerk to a London firm. An 

 early passion for the study of 

 insects asserted itself, how- 

 ever, and having made a little 

 money by collecting and 

 breeding moths and butter- 

 flies in his spare time, he re- 

 solved to stake everything 

 upon a special, up-to-date but- 

 terfly farm. 



The venture has proved a splendid success, although Mr. 

 Newman confessed to the writer during the course of an 

 interview that he entered upon the experiment with some 

 feelings of trepidation. At the present time he is supplying 

 hundreds of private collectors in various parts of the globe, 

 who make entomology their special hobby, not to mention 

 museums, with live and dead specimens; for Mr. Newman's 

 dead stock is quite as important to him as that which costs 

 him money and labor for food. 



In one of his rooms Mr. Newman has cases and cup- 



The Largest British Moth— The " Death's Head " Moth 



boards which generally contain about 60,000 moths and but- 

 terflies, all carefully set and mounted ready for collectors. 

 Before his marriage some time ago, Mr. Newman was 

 obliged to spend six hours a day mounting butterflies in 

 order to cope with the orders. Now, however, he not only 

 has a most charming wife, but a really valuable helpmeet 

 in more senses than one; for Mrs. Newman has, under her 

 husband's guidance, become an expert mounter, and conse- 

 quently is able to relieve her husband of much important, 

 though tedious, work. The mounting of the insects, by 

 the by, must be done within a certain time of their death. 



Otherwise, the legs and wings 

 become too stiff to set properly 

 and produce the best effect. 

 Then again, in order to retain 

 the full beauty of the wings it 

 is essential in many cases to 

 kill the butterflies as soon as 

 they are fully matured in 

 order that they may not dam- 

 age themselves in any way by 

 fluttering about the cages or 

 fighting with one another. It 

 is interesting to note the two 

 methods — both of an expedi- 

 tious and painless character — 

 by which Mr. Newman kills the butterflies he requires for 

 mounting. One method is very simple. Provided with a 

 large glass jar containing a solution of cyanide of potassium, 

 Mr. Newman simply takes up each butterfly with a pair of 

 curiously shaped pinchers and drops it into the jar. Im- 

 mediately the butterfly is placed over the mouth of the jar 

 it expires, death being brought about by the fumes. The 

 second method requires more skill in order to be painless 

 and effective, and is not to be attempted by the amateur. It 

 is accomplished by means of a mapping pen and a weak solu- 



Killing the Insect with 

 Oxalic Acid 



Feeding Butterflies with Water 

 and Honey 



Removing Caterpillars from a Denuded 

 Lime Tree 



