So great has been the demand for these creatures from epicures, that 
at one time the species was threatened with extinction. The price for a large 
terrapin has been as high as ten dollars, and a normal price may be from 
sixty to seventy-five dollars a dozen. When it is considered that the average 
specimen has a shell of about eight inches and weighs only three pounds, 
the price it brings stamps it as a luxury food. 
The diminishing supply led to the establishment of terrapin “farms” 
in such states as the Carolinas and Georgia. Here wild terrapins were placed 
in captivity and fattened for market. Some of these enterprises are com¬ 
mercial hatcheries which breed diamond-backs, nurturing the young until 
they are delectable enough for the connoisseur’s table. As an emergency 
measure North Carolina in 1923 prohibited the capture of terrapins for a 
five-year period, and Hildebrand began experiments in cooperation with the 
Bureau of Fisheries to save the precious animals from complete extinction. 
There are “farms” which imitate the Florida alligator “farms” by 
exhibiting terrapins with clever traits. One, at Isle of Hope, near Savannah, 
Georgia, features a piano-playing diamond-back which, when posed on a 
tiny player piano, will wiggle its claws as though really producing the music. 
The diamond-back has quite a degree of intelligence. Experiments 
have shown that it can learn to associate certain sounds or even lights with 
its feeding time, and will come promptly to the feeding place. 
The diamond-back acquired its popular name from the diamond-shaped 
pattern of the plates on its rough, dark olive top shell. Its lower shell is 
yellow. The mouth has a sharp cutting edge and a wide grinding plate, per¬ 
mitting it to eat shellfish without difficulty. Other staples in its diet include 
grass, snails and mollusks. In captivity it consumes chopped clams and 
oysters, shrimps and fish. It prefers to eat under water. 
Among diamond-backs, the female is the dominating sex, attaining a 
shell length of from eight to twelve inches, while the runty male, stretching 
himself to his full length, has a shell of only four inches. 
The females lay from five to twelve eggs, which are buried five inches 
deep in the mudbank or at the edge of a marsh. The one-inch-long young 
are hatched in the summer time but remain in the nest until the following 
spring, not feeding at all during that period. However, those born on the 
“farms” are not permitted to hibernate and are fed to increase their rate 
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