Show WOMAN RAISES MICE MISS LATHROP FINDS RODENT FARM IS PROFITABLE Supplies Medical Colleges and Universities Univer-sities with Animals for Experiment Experi-ment Waltzing Mice Have Great Market Value Boston In the face of all tradition about womans insane fear of a rat or a mouse Miss Abbie E C Lathrop of Granby Mass Is earning her living by managing a rat and mice farm She says trapkly she was born with a fear of the rodent tribe but soon coh quered It when she found there was money In them Miss Lathrop has at present more titan 1600 rats and mice of every variety which she teaderjy cares for and will put on the market as fast as they can be prepared The stock is all carefully penned and In spite of their gnawing abilities It Is rare that a rat or mouse escapes Miss Lathrop began breeding mice as a business about five years ago and the industry has grown rapidly She began with a few boxes In an old shed She soon needed more boxes and now tho whole place Inside and outside is fairly alive with mice One house has been built exclusively for them and every available Inch of shed room bout the place has been utilized Miss Lathrop will put up still more buildings and says she has no Idea to what limits the Industry may go It seems as If there would bo no market for mice but there Is a good I one At first they went wholly to bird stores and fanciers to be sold again as pets They also figured in window displays where with training they performed little tricks Then there came a big demand for waltzing mice Later a still more promising field opened up and Is her best paying line namely supplying medical colleges col-leges with mice for experimentation Tho University of Philadelphia and i the medical departments of various other Institutions throughout the country now have become her regular customers and silo ships mice to them every month The little creatures are Inoculated for all sorts of disease their condition carefully watched and the progress of tho disease noted and recorded So great during tho past year has been the call for mice that Miss Lathrop has hardly been able to ship them fast enough and has been obliged to refuse many orders I In addition to the mice and rats Miss Lathrop has about 200 guinea pigs and a largo number of ferrets The waltzing mice she is particularly careful of for they aro rare specimens speci-mens and possess great market value These she keeps In the house where there will he no danger of chili from cold They are exceedingly funny little lit-tle creatures always waltzing airily up and down the cage floor Instead of gliding along as their commoner brothers do The mice aro kept In small pens usually a dozen or so In each and these are ranged down the house or shed several tiers high on both sides of a center aisle The mice shrink back Into the corner of their cages when a stranger Is In the house but they seem to recognize Miss Lathrops voice and will rush to tho front of their pens when she appears They require constant care and watching Food and water must be regularly supplied sup-plied and all the cages and the number num-ber of Inhabitants In each must be constantly watched for they breed so rapidly they have to bo continually shifted over Into new cages Often she finds so many mice In a pen that a few hours more would mean serious difficulty and If she wero not constantly con-stantly shipping them off she would be overrun with them To feed them she puts In as much as 100 worth of grain and also several tons of green forage |