Forest and Stream, December 6, 1888

TERRAPIN CULTURE.

Sea -- Terrapin

WE have two inquiries for information concerning the culture of the diamond-back terrapin, one writer wishing to know about their habits and the modes of capturing them, and also about the land terrapin found in the South. We will be pleased to have communications on this subject and in meantime will say: There is no article of food which varies in quality and consequently in price, as the diamond-back terrapin, Malacoclemmys palustris, the "hens" always selling at the best prices. Those measuring six inches in length of lower shell often bring from $18 to $50 per dozen, while little "bulls" of four to five inches will often sell at one dollar per dozen, or not at all. The best are an expensive delicacy and the principal markets are Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York. Probably the best buyer in the latter city is Mr. E. G. Blackford who, while he trusts other men to buy fish for his market, handles every terrapin that he buys and judges it individually.

As for terrapin culture, we incline to believe it to be as impracticable as frog culture, which was recently shown in our columns to be a delusion bred of sensational journalism. The terrapin season begins in October and lasts until May, the first two or three months being the height of it, but many are caught during the summer and penned up until the season opens, thus giving rise to the reports of "terrapin farms." These penned ones never bring the high prices and can be distinguished at a glance by an expert by the scratched appearance of the lower shell and the callosities on the feet. Mr. Benjamin West, of Fulton Market, tried to rear them and feed them in confinement but failed. His place of experiment was on the Shrewsbury River, New Jersey, but he thinks that terrapin may be raised by care and the expenditure of considerable money, but as the terrapin is of slow growth it is possible that ten years might elapse before the first crop was marketed. Mr. West prefers, for his own eating, a "heifer" terrapin, which might be defined as a young female whose plastron measures under six inches, but not less than five and a half, because, as he says they are young, tender and delicate, and he quotes the old sportsman and epicure, Col. Skinner, in support of his preference.

In his experiments Mr. West inclosed a large pond and marsh with a tight board fence thirty inches high, and procured eggs and hatched about five thousand young ones, but they escaped. He thinks they climbed the fence with their claws, which are very sharp in the young, for he tracked one to the fence and found its track on the other side and followed it into his asparagus bed where it had burrowed. Mr. West thinks the young do not go to the water at first but remain in the sand. He believes that if terrapin culture is ever made profitable it will be down in Virginia where hard-crabs are cheap, for if the adults are fed on fish they taste fishy, but if crabs are the food the chelonian is in perfection. He has fed them with cabbage leaves and other vegetation. Our interview with Mr. West gave us the impression expressed above, that perhaps terrapins may be raised, but the food, attendance and natural losses, not to mention thieving crabbers, would leave the balance on the wrong side of the ledger.

We are promised some further information on the subject of "terrapin farming," and if there is such a thing as a system of terrapin culture, that is raising them from the egg to maturity, we will find it out and publish the results. To our correspondent who wants statistics of the catch and the life-history of the marsh or diamond-backed terrapin, we would say, consult the three volumes of "The Fisheries and Fishery Industries," by G. Brown Goode and associates, printed by direction of the U. S. Fish Commission, 1887. These volumes may be obtained through a member of Congress, or can be bought of the Public Printer for a small sum.