A FROG FARM.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1917, Page 3

A FROG FARM.

The only frog-farm in Australia is situated at Balgowlah, near Manly, and is conducted by a man named Leon Gebehr. The reptiles are raised not for culinary, but for scientific purposes; they are sold in large numbers to the Universities. A recent visitor to the farm found stocks somewhat depleted—there were only about 4000 all told—but be was given much interesting information about the creatures and their habits. The frog farmer’s chief anxiety relates to weather. The frogs are kept enclosed in fine wire netting, where there is a series of ponds. Inside the shelter boxes, like beehives. At the first breath of the cold southerly which comes up so suddenly in this region in hot weather, the frogs rush to the

boxes, and remain there until the temperature rises. Mr Gebehr told dolefully how, last April, a sudden slight frost wiped out some hundreds of his charges. It would seem that the Hawke’s Bay peach-grower; and the Manly frog-farmer have something in common. During the summer, the frogs eat voraciously. Everything in insect form is food for them. Mr Gebehr chops up over-ripe fruit, and leaves, it in the enclosure. The bait attracts myriads of flies, and on them the frogs wax fat. S warms of ants also come in after the fruit. Few return. The frog-farmers job during the winter is a sinecure. The fattened frog, for three or four months, retires into obscurity and a state of somnolence. Visitors to this unique farm are greatly struck by the fact that the frogs know their master. They show no fear of him; some even liop after him. But the advent of a stranger creates prompt alarm, and a hurried disappearance. The frogs have a hundreds enemies—cats, eels, fowls, snakes, lizards, and many kind of fish and bird's. Stocks are replenished by breeding, and by introducing trapped strangers from outside. Mr Gebehr declares they are good Australian frogs, a certain number of immigrants are received without question, but if the established community thinks the number excessive, there presently arises a fearful hullabaloo, and only active human interference prevents a general massacre. There is not yet any demand in Australia for frogs for table purposes. The snail finds its way into many dining-rooms, and a number of men, it is said, are now engaged in raising these succulent creatures for the market.