Aug. 26, ipos-I TQ 
FOREST AND STREAM 
171 
Frog Farming* 
i Pernsylvania ExpeHments tn Practical Frog Culture. 
BY WILLIAM 1; MeEhAN-^ COMMtSSlONEg OP FiSKERiaS, 
g0MMoMWEALtH OP f>ENNS¥LVASrtA; 
In Ma^ dr jmie, 1904, th€re appgareil a fdur-lihg ngVf’s 
item sent out by the Associdted^. Pre§s, thrdpf hdut 
Pennsylvania, announcing that the Depdrtnierit ol Fish- 
eries would receive applications for tadpoles or frofs; 
to be planted in suitable waters in the State. The 
announcement was made on the authority of the De- 
partment of Fisheries, and the department, not imagin- 
ing that any great excitement would follow, had the 
State printer prepare only about one thousand blank 
forms. To mj^ amazement, within a few hours of the 
publication of the notice, letters began pouring in, ask- 
ing for blanks, and within a week, the entire one thous- 
and was exhausted and still the mail was swelled by 
demands for frogs. Newspapers in all parts of the 
State began publishing comments in their editorial 
columns, and even the great dailies of Philadelphia and 
Pittsburg had leading editorials and editorial paragraphs 
commending the department for what they called the new 
departure. Papers in other States referred to Pennsyl- 
I vania*s work in frog culture, and even some magazines 
j wanted to _ know about it. Fishculturists all _ over the 
I country evinced a lively interestj and began besieging the 
1 department for literature on the subject 
I It was generally assumed by the fishculturists that the 
■ frogs, which were distributed under the announcement 
; by the Associated Press, were from spawn taken from 
1 cultivated frogs; but this Was a. mistake, although the 
« department has been experimenting for several years in 
[ practical frog culture, and about the time' of the ait- 
f nouncement, had apparailtly Succeeded in carrying a 
I large number of frogs through the winter in a sfflall 
I pond and in securing spawn therefrOm. But the spawn 
i of the tadpoles distributed was front wild frogs and was 
i gathered from the marshes of the peninsula which 
; divides Presque Isle Bay from the main body of Lake 
Erie, 
The Spawn was gathered without orders by Mr. A. 
G. Bull er. Superintendent of the State Fish Hatchery 
of the city of Erie, and he did so, knowing the interest 
which I was taking in frog culture and in procuring 
them for planting throughout the State. 
’ The spawn was in all stages of incubation, some of 
It SO far advanced that hatching took place between 
the marshes and the hatching station. When gathered 
' it was placed in a small pond ten feet square, having 
only about a foot of water, at the Erie hatchery. The 
temperature was about 65 degrees, and the green eggs 
hatched inside Of two weeks. Almost immediately after 
being hatched, the little tadpoles attacked the gelatinous 
mass from which they issued, and in an incredibly short 
time, devoured it all. As soon as it had all disappeared, 
the little tadpoles began on any refuse animal and 
vegetable matter which was in the pond, and that was 
cleaned up very quickly. 
Mr. Buller then secured some dead fish from the 
market and threw them into the ponds. They attacked 
this food ravenously. Within five minutes after they 
Were given a dead fish, the body would be completely 
- covered by a living mass of wriggling tadpoles, which 
they would seldom leave until nothing w'as left but the 
bare skeleton. There were some 30,000 tadpoles in this 
little pond, and they devoured about twenty-five pounds 
of fish weekly. On one occasion, they completely 
stripped the flesh off a sixteen-pound carp inside of foru- 
days. The water remaining warm, the tadpoles grew 
with wonderful rapidity, and about the first of July 
or about six weeks after they had hatched, the hind legs 
began to appear, and shortly after, the forelegs broke 
out. Almost simultaneously with the appearance of the 
forelegs, the tadpoles ceased to feed on dead fish or 
any dead matter whatever, and appeared to subsist al- 
most entirely on the contents of their tails, which is 
; supposed to be absorbed, as fish absorb the material 
in tbe yolk sac attached to fish fry. 
About the time the tail was absorbed the tadpoles be- 
gan to seek live matter and would take nothing else, 
their preference seemed to be for insects and spiders, 
' but. strange to say, they would not touch maggots. To 
assist in gathering insect life, small boards were an- 
I chored at intervals on the pond and on the ground on 
; the edge and smeared with molases or honey. The 
frogs soon found these places out and thousands upon 
thousands gathered around, seated on their haunches, 
and as myriads of flies and bees dropped to eat the 
; molasses, they were seized b}'' the long tongues and 
swallowed. Despite the vast number in this small space, 
the little frogs grew rapidly until the middle of July, or 
when they were less than three months old, they were 
, lj/2 inches to 2 inches each. 
To fully illustrate the extreme voracity of the tad- 
I pole, I will give an incident which occurred .in a tad- 
‘ pole pond at the Wayne county hatchery this spring. 
There were about 30,000 tadpoles in this pond. They 
had had nothing to eat for about thirty-four hours, ex- 
: cepting what they might gather from the bottom of the 
pond, then a four-pound black bass, which had died in 
the bass pond, was thrown to them. The fish was pur- 
posely thrown in a spot where there were no tadpoles. 
In a few moments, there was a great disturbance among 
the little creatures about six feet away. They began 
performing all sorts of evolutions, turning, twdsting, 
■wriggling around and around, until they formed almost 
a perfect ball, every moment the mass increasing in 
size and reeling toward the dead fish. Within three 
minutes, the mass of unfithing tadpoles had reached the 
food and had fastened themselves to the body. In 
.quicker time than it takes to write it, every tadpole 
seemed to be aware of the presence of the food and 
all of them turning and twisting in the same manner as 
already described, made their way to the morsel. The 
mass was so great that before any other food could be 
thrown to them and so relieve the excitement, several 
hundreds of them had been killed. The tadpoles in that 
pond cleaned up that four-pound bass in a little more 
than four hours. 
Experience in tadpole rearing has convinced the de- 
partment that 3o,o05 is the utmost limit which can be 
safely carried ,ifi S pOhd tell feet square. If any con- 
siderable number fiiore thail this be attempted, it is 
almost certain they wiil be seized with a disease, which, 
unless checked, will sweep them all away within twenty- 
four hours. We lost the contents of tWO ponds contain- 
ing about 100,000 last spring at Erie in less than thirty- 
six hours. The period of incubation varies according 
to the temperature of the water, the same as is the case 
with fish, only if anything, it is more pronounced. In 
like manner, tadpoles hatched in extremely cold water 
will be much smaller than those hatched in warm water. ■ 
Tadpoles hatched in warm water will completely change 
their form and become perfect frogs inside of three 
months. Tadpoles hatched and retained in water of 50 
degrees or less may retain their tadpole forms for 
twelve months before changing into frogs. 
Pennsylvania’s experiments in retaining mature frogs 
in ponds for breeding purposes have extended over a 
period of five years, and until this last year, the results 
were uniformly failures. It was easy enough to keep 
forty Or fifty frogs in a pond ten feet square or about 
that size, but not more, partly where they were confined 
so that they could not get away. Finally we constructed 
a pond about fifteen feet long and six or eight feet 
wide with a depth at the breast of about three feet. The 
bottoni of the pond sloped upward toward the back, 
until it reached the surface of the ground. _ The breast 
of the pond was so built that when filled with water, it 
would partially overflow the ground for some five or 
six feet back at the upper end, where grass was allowed 
to grow. The bottom of the pond was soft muck of 
considerable depth. Around the pond, leaving a space 
of about three feet on each side, was erected a fence 
made of mosquito wire netting and boards. A twelve- 
inch board was set on the ground nailed to posts about 
four feet high. The wire netting was nailed to the upper 
edge of the board and this wire netting was about 
thirty-six inches wide, making a fence, as I have stated, 
of about four feet. 
As frogs are notable climbers, it was soon necessary 
to device some means to prevent them from getting over 
the top of the fence. The superintendent of the Erie 
hatchery nailed a strip of muslin about six inches wide 
along the top of the fence at right angles, extending in- 
ward. He found, however, to make this effective, that 
he had to nail a narrow strip of wood along the fence, 
otherwise the small frogs in climbing to the top would 
push under the muslin, just as a boy would climb under 
the walls of a circus tent, and so escape. The superin- 
tendent of the Corry hatchery placed a strip of muslin 
about ten inches wide around the pond at acute angles, 
extending inward. He found the same trouble, as did 
the superintendent at Erie. The superintendent at the 
Torresdale hatchery nailed a twelve-inch board, flat, ex- 
tending inward all around, and that was too much for 
the frogs. It was the most effective device. 
In the pond described, built at Erie, 250 frogs were 
placed in the spring of 1904. Boards smeared with mo- 
lasses were placed in the grass around the pond and 
the frogs lived contentedly throughout the summer, 
devouring so many bees from a neighboring apiary that 
the owners made vigorous protest. When late fall 
arrived, the frogs took to the muck at the bottom of the 
pond, where they remained all winter. It was neces- 
sary to have a depth of not less than three feet of water 
in the pond, on account of the excessive cold winter. 
If the water were to freeze to the bottom, the frogs 
would probably be killed even though they were in the 
muck. When the spring of 1905 came, the frogs emerged 
joyously from their long sleep and soon thereafter pro- 
ceeded to spawn laying. The 250 frogs deposited spawn 
which produced, as estimated, seventy-five to one hun- 
dred thousand tadpoles. Fed on dead fish, the tadpoles 
waxed fat and strong, when suddenly they began 
to disappear in a most mysterious manner. After a 
diligent search, one half of the frogs having disappeared, 
the attendants discovered four huge water snakes in 
the enclosure, and their plump bodies indicated that 
they had been living high on tadpoles. 
Strange to relate, the violent death of the snakes did not 
prevent a great decrease in the number of tadpoles re- 
maining, indeed, in a short time everyone had disappeared, 
to the amazement of the superintendent and myself. The 
my.^tery was not explained for more than two weeks, 
when there came a hurry call from the superintendent of 
the Wayne County Hatchery for the applications for frogs 
on file in the office, he stating that unless he received 
them at once he would have no little frogs to distribute, 
because he had caught the old frogs in the pond devour- 
ing their progeny. The mystery of the disappearance at 
the Corry Hatchery after the snakes had been killed be- 
came clear. It therefore becomes evident that in carrying 
on the work of frog culture, it will be necessary to have 
the pond in series of twos, that is tO' say, a pond for 
breeding frogs and_ a pond for the tadpoles. As soon, in 
fact, as the spawn is deposited it would be best to remove 
it at once from the pond in which the large frogs reside 
and deposit it in the pond in which there are no such 
creatures and where they can hatch with perfect safety 
and be cared for better until shipping time arrives. 
The shipping of frogs is exceedingly simple and inex- - 
pensive as compared with the shipping of fish, about 250 
can be placed in a tw^enty-gallon shipping can. No water 
vvhateyer should be placed in a can, but instead the bot- 
tom should be covered with a thick layer of moss. If the 
regular shipping can for fish is used it will be necessary 
to cover the top with mosquito netting, otherwise when 
the cans arrive at their destination the applicant will 
probably find nothing but empty cans, the little frogs 
during the journey having clambered the sides and made 
their escape through the hole in the lid. Frogs will carry 
in this manner we know for two days, and probably 
longer without any attention whatever. 
If tadpoles are sliipped instead of frogs the can may 
be filled about one-quarter With water and the tadpoles 
shipped safely. A m.essenger is not necessary in this case 
for aeration is not required, and, in fact, the probabiliti- 
ties are that tadpoles would enjoy the high temperature 
better than they would aeration. 
Since the Department has begun the distribution of 
fro^s, hundreds of letters have been received frotn people 
asking for information concerning the incubation and 
what is necessary to do. As far as possible we have 
given them in a brief form the preceding information, 
and we have added that in all probability at least three 
acres of ground covered with ponds would be required 
for a profitable frog farm. This, of course, is more Or 
less speculative, although it is doubtful if a less area 
would produce satisfactory returns. The one drawback 
to successful frog culture appears from the fact that it is 
largely experimental as yet ; that it is most likely that 
under the most favorable conditions it would require at 
least two or three years before they would be marketable. 
While much easier to care for than trout and some other 
fishes, they certainly have their enemies ; not only would 
they be attacked by snakes and mature frogs, but the 
tadpoles themselves, as well as the frogs, are an easy 
prey to predator}^ birds; hence, it becomes obligatory on 
the part of the prospective frog culturist tO' build small 
ponds so that the top can .be covered with netting which 
will keep the birds out. 
A Flying Trip* 
It was my first chance at Florida fishing. Things were 
so arranged that I had but seven days in which to go to 
Daytona, attend to business for a day and a half, and get 
back at my desk. An hour’s notice to get packed up, but 
then an hour is plenty of time to get ready for a week’s 
trip. The midnight train on the Seaboard Air Line from 
Jersey City Wednesday. Three hours to spare to go 
through the Capitol at Washington on Thursday morn- 
ing. (This is a habit, and one with a particle of patriotism 
in their make-up could never stop over at Washington 
without visiting the Capitol.) Jacksonville at 8.30 A. M. 
Friday, Daytona on the Florida East Coast R. R. at 1.30 
P. M. My, but it was hot this first week in April; nightly 
frosts in New York, 90 degrees in the shade here, and 
mosquitoes! well, I should say so, millions of them, and 
no presto along. 
My business was all fixed up by Saturday 3 P. M. and 
I was negotiating for a ride up the beach to Ponce Park, 
when a launch owner kindly agreed to give me a ride up 
the river as far as his hotel, which was a short quarter 
of a mile from my destination, the Pacetti House. I took 
the wheel as he started the engine, and he seemed to be 
willing that I should keep it. Before he went to sleep 
these were the directions I got: “From here to that point 
up there a mile on the left the water is all the same depth; 
when you get to the point hug the bank for a couple of 
miles, then cross over aliead of a bunch of stakes and keep 
along the right shore till you see a bank of oyster shells 
sticking out, cross over again a couple of hundred feet 
above the point and hug the left bank till you see the 
lighthouse, then steer for that.” And he went to sleep. 
The old engine chugged away without missing an ex- 
plosion, occasionally we would stir up a school of mullets 
which would go skipping out of the water in silvery 
streaks, dividing to the right and left. Lazy old pelicans 
flapped by us in dignified line, and now and then an egret 
or white crane stretched out an inquiring neck from the 
safety of a shell bank several hundred yards distant. The 
monotonous chug of the engine and the fresh steady 
breeze made my eyes heavy, several times I just caught 
myself nodding, but luckily kept awake. The trip of 
sixty-four miles was made without a mishap, and we 
were soon fastened up to the little dock of palm logs. The 
sandy patch through the dense tropical foliage to the 
Pacetti House showed in several places the smooth marks 
of gigantic rattlesnakes which abound in this jungle; 
luckily none were seen, though once the* rasping of a 
couple of dead palm leaves in the breeze caused a ha.sty 
side step. A supper of broiled sea trout, fried crevalhO' 
and channel bass, potatoes and hot muffins was disposed 
of and then I took a walk out on the little wharf in front 
of the house. There was a piece of line with a hook at- . 
tached lying on the wharf laut no bait. Looking down 
on the edge of the shell bank I spied a hermit crab; by 
tip-toeing along in shallow water he was easily secured, 
but his house resisted repeated attacks with the. heel of 
my shoe, finally with the aid of a heavy iron bolt I got 
him out and putting him on the hook dropped it down 
alongside one of the piles. Immediately there was a nibble, 
then a sharp tug and I had a 2-pound sea bass flapping on 
the wharf. It was getting dark and there was no more 
bait, so I quit reluctantly. 
The following day was Sunday, and though ordinarily 
I am not given to Sunday fishing, still in this case it was 
excusable. It was arranged that I was to go in a launch 
up the inlet to the Spruce Creek trestle, fishing on the way 
and flag the train for Jacksonville, which passed at 3 in 
the afternoon. My companion was Gomez Pacetti, a 
school teacher, scholar, gentleman and expert fisherman 
all in one. nice pailful of live niullet had been caught 
and after a hasty breakfast away we started. The first 
stop netted us each a sea trout weighing about 5 pounds. 
We could have filled the boat with sea trout at this place 
