The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-06-16

One would hoid three pintS or water or
millet, and when fresh, they are good
to eat. But to the Indian or the Bush
man these eggs are chiefly valuable for
their thick shells, out of which he
makes his cups, and pitchers and water
jars. In South Africa, particularly,
water is extremely scarce and precious.
The wild natives, therefore, empty the
eggs through small holes. and fill the
shells with water, corking up the ORR
fees. When they are going on o
journey, they make net-bags out OF
twine, formed from bark or rushes,
and inclose each shell in bag. Thus
inclosed and protected in the netting,
the stout egg-shells can be tied together
and safely carried over a mans shoul
der, or on the backs of oxen; and in
these ways, ostrichegg shells supply
drinking water for long trips across the
desert. To cool it, after a days jour-
ney in the sun, they bury the corked
shells in the ground for an hour or two.
For the first three or four days after
coming out of the shell, we are told,
the chicks eat nothing whatever, '.but
sit on their launches and imbibe their
first impressions of nature" 1t would
be a curious thing to know just how
the world looks to baby ostrich; the
first things eaten are not food. but
pebbles, sand and bits OF the shells
from which the birds have recently
been Matched. Later, they take mouth
fuls of grass, then begin to snatch up
insects and lizards, and, meanwhile, are
becoming expert in the art of suddenly
disappearing at warning cry from the
watchful parent. "This they do by
diving under q bush where possible,
and lying on the ground with their
bodies as fiat as possible, and their
necks stretched out upon the earth.
Here they lie motionless as lump of
clay--and not unlike it in appearance,
even to the practiced eye-until the
danger is overn Such native wisdom
is early supplemented in their infant
brains, however, by the farmers les
sons.
Sometimes q stout young ostrich
serves as saddle-horse for rider as ad-
venturous as a bushboy. 1t is strong
and fleet enough for the purpose, but
too stupid to be guided satisfactorily,
or to be trusted not to run away and
perhaps spill the rider. In the 10
illogical Gardens of London, and in the
Bois de Boulogue, Paris, children are
sometimes allowed to ride upon
ostriches, in the care of an attendant.
They are said by the people of the
Cape of Good Hope 10 be very gentle
and funny as pets, though full OF mis-
chief.
But I am forgetting the promise of
nv title-to describe ostrich-farming.
The ostrich-farm is a South African
idea, and has become a great industry
at the Cape Colony. 1t is said to have
been founded by accident. Formerly
the supplying of plumes was almost
wholly in the hands of the Arab traders,
who travelled throughout the interior of
Africa, and English merchants at the
Cape had little hold upon it. though
prices were high and great profits possi-
bic. The Arab dealers would bring to
the coast from the interior, also, many
ostriches' eggs to sell in the villages as
food, or to send to Europe as ornaments,
often with odd, elaborate carvings upon
the shells. The story goes that one
day, about twenty-five years ago, an
Algerian trader, having q heavier cargo
than he could carry, left few eggs in
a cupboard adjoining o bakery in the
village. Two months afterward, he
was astonished to find there a chick for
every egg he had left. OF course, the
young ostriches were dead, but it was
evident that they had been artifcially
Matched by the warmth from the neigh
boring fire. A French army officer,
bearing this fact, set himself to learn
whether he could regularly hatch out
the eggs in an artificial oven or incu-
bator, and afterward raise the young
birds until they should grow of q size to
bear saiable feathers; and at last he
succeeded. -
1t was hardly to be expected that the
/ Nf lnrfa ohnfrld
turn the discovery to proht at once,
but wide-awake Englishman heard of
it and immediately tried the experiment
in South Africa, for there were plenty
of ostrich eggs to be had there, and he
knew that success would bring him
plenty of money. The experiment led
to many improvements upon the first
one, until now ostrich-farming is q
well-settled business; and of the several
millions of dollars worth of plumes ex-
ported from Africa every year. the
Cape Colony sends over three-quarters,
wholly of artificial production, and
procured from about half a million of
tame birds.
The ostrich-farner begins by having
an immense grassy range inclosed by
fences. which need be neither high nor
stout. Then he buys a few birds from
another farmer, for which he pays from
one hundred to- five hundred dollars
apiece. builds his Matching machine, or
incubator, and is ready. tE
Incubators are 3of various patterns,
but all are intended to serve the same
purpose, namely, to initiate just as
closely as possible the natural warmth
of the bird wheni sitting. To accom-
plish this, a large chest or bureau is
built, in which watts of hot water are
arranged across the whole breadth.
Between these watts are sets of sliding
| boxes, or drawers. In these are laid
the eggs, wrapped in flannel. and then,
by a system of screws, the drawers are
placed close up under the hot-water
vats 1t sounds easy, but six weeks
are required to hatch ont the chicks,
and we are told that ssduring all this
period, three times each day, the farm
er must turn the eggs, so as to present
| first one side and then another to the
life-bringing warmth. He must follow
Nature as closely as possible, for the
degrees of heat and moisture, and the
| like, must be Just right, or otherwise
mischief is done. He must, moreover,
with delicate care. when the proper
moment comes, assist the young chick
to free itself from the. she'll, and then
he must tenderly nurse the bird during
its early, helpless days"
The young ostriches, after three or
four days, eat all sorts of green food,
and are regularly fed and cared for by a
servant-thirty or forty youngsters
keeping one man busy. They are tame
and gentle enough, and when they get
fairly grown are SO hardy that no more
anxiety is felt about their health, and
they are turned out upon the great
ranch 10 shift for themselves. excepting
in times of unusual drought, when they
must be fed. They eat nearly every
thing edible, and comical stories are
told of their appetite and powers of di-
gestion-