Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-17
A California Ostrich Farm.
What Ex-CommIssfOAer Ls Due Saw
 There.

What Ex-Commisstoner Le Due Saw
 There.
 From A Letter to the New York Tribunal
 have thought that an account of a visit to tho ostrich farm near Anaheim, Cal. might interest your readers and give some in formation that would be useful. My atten- tion was called to the profit as we'll as practi cability of ostrich breeding in this country some years ago by young gentleman fresh from college, who has since taken orders in the Episcopalian church, and who prepared for me a statement of the case as it then stood, showing conclusiveiy enough to war rant the experiment that an industry of i'm portance might easily be built up in various parts of the United States. Having there fore recommended the business and tried without avail to have the general government do something to promote ostrich raising, 1t may be understood that felt interest enough in the ostrich to go out of my way to visit him in his new home near Anaheim, Gal.
 Leaving Los Angeles on the 10 8. m. train, I arrived at Ansheim at 11:3O, having passed through fiat, we'll cultivated country large- iy planted to citrus fruits and vines
 As drive toward the new unpainted build ings in view 8 half-mile away see signboards with notice that all dogs found on these premises will be shot. And this emphatic notice is strictly enforced, much to the sur prise of confiding sightseeing people who have not yet learned that the notice means death to any and all dogs which may come within range of the shotgun or pistol of the guardians of the precious feathered bipeds. Only short time before a dog was shot at the side of his bucolic master, who could not comprehend the necessity of guarding the breeding birds from the sight of any animal of the dog kind As I approach the house I sec that 1t is one of the San Francisco 'tready -mades," built of redwood. Ordered by telegraph from San Francisco, it was shipped by rail and set up ready for oocupan cy within four days from the giving of the order. It is unique and tasteful rsctangu- lar structure one story high; shingle roof with gables porch along the entire front ornamental brackets and corniee 8 passage way six feet wide through the center; two rooms on each side, each twelve feet square and the whole building set up on the ground | cost $400! One room is used for reception room, one for sleeping, one for kitchen and ! one for the incubator and egg room. On the ! work done in this room depends the success of the ostrich farm.
 A broad shelf on one side contains about ! fifty eggs and any number of eggs of the ! brown Leghorn chicken. The incubator has l been used for matching these eggs prior 10 trusting the more valuable ostrich eggs to its | maternal care. These ostrich egg won der to all who see them for the first time. They are regularly elliptical in form, weigh ing about three and one. half pounds meas uring in circumference 1S1I6 inches, and with holding capacity equal to full quart measure The color is & creamy white and the shell is equally pitted all over and porous I in appearance Sixteen eggs have been put I in the incubator up to the time of this visit June %, and the remaining eggs, and what I more may come, will wait for the Halstead ostrich incubator, which has made favora | ble reputation in Cape Colony in the special | ty of hatching ostrich eggs, and which is | daily expected
 These sixteen eggs were placed in the in- \ cubator on May 14, 15 and Is, and their peri ! cd of incubation has nearly passed, for the | chickens are moving in their shells ready for advent into California life. One came as GUGnt courrier yesterday, and to-day is 8 beauty of it's kind. He is covered with speckled brown downy feathers except on the | head and neck and legs; he is as wild, shy | and active as the young antelope fawn, and, l only day old, is as large as a full grown' Leghorn hen. Uneasy and restless, in con Il stant motion, and with inquiring eyes, he no doubt waits impatiently the companions who are to join him in his feather-producing ca I reer.
 Preparatory to any nourishing food, he had placed before him when about twenty-four | hours old tray of small gravel stones and crushed sea shells subsequent to this tonic he had handful of chopped alfalfa, This lays the foundation for a meal of cracked | corn and water, and when this has been eat | gn the bird Is rof1sidSfSd-Un tliS Btfalehe road to distinction as the first ostrich matched in l America. The bird will no doubt conduct himself or herself as the case may be (for the sex is not distinguishable for some months) in accordance with the rules and prescribed and enforced here for | the successful promotion of the honor and profit properly due the contemplating gentle mon who have initiated this new industry
 Leaving the front door looking east I turned to the south, and before me is an in | closure of four acres in l. form, made by post and board fence only four and half feet high But this fence is made of three good sound inch-thick, twelve inches wide redwood boards, well nailed on. kick from an irritated ostrich would break an or 1inary fence board in splinters. These par sllelograms making the l. are divided into twelve paddocks in which the stock of twen- ty-one ostriches, eleven hens and ten cocks are placed. Each paddock contains pair of birds, one having two hens and one cock. The paddocks are bare and sandy, but sur rounding the breeding grounds is an excel ent growth of alfalfa, turnips cabbages onions, maize and beets, all of which have been planted and grown since March 20, and are on time for the voracious chickens which gre expected to rally round their exemplary parents in an all-summer campaign against he fifty-four acres of green food provided or them.
 In close proximity to the paddocks is an Irtesisn well three hundred feet deep, which discharges four feet above surface twelve thousand gallons of water each hour-suffi- | ,ient to irrigate in this locality from two to l. hree hundred acres of land planted to ordi- l nary crops and with the average rainfall f The entire farm is 8 mile square, or GAO tcres, and is level plain.
 It may bo as well to remind you that these Ire the ostriches the arrival of which in New York last November attracted so much at- ention, and which Dr Protheroe, of Buenos Ayres and Dr. O. J. Sketchley, both former y of the Transyaal, Africa brought to this country with the hope of forming stock company to engage in the business of breed : ng fowls and raising feathers. company vas formed at once in San Francisco with a l paid up capital of $50, 900, Drs. Protheroe i md Sketchley retaining an interest, and Dr. { ,ketchley giving the benefit of his expert 2 'nce as superintendent of the farm for the , present..
 This enterprise may be fairly pronounced [ success, for the company has more orders z or birds than it promise to fill this sea- q T on, and at it's own prices, which are $100 to T s12O for a healthy chick four months old These chickens will yield their first feathers Vhen eight months old, which picking should V ring at present market prices from $7 to ! he first. should bring from $40 to $50. and B two years the bird, if well cared for, is xpected to be in full plumage, and to yield nnually $20O worth of feathers Ostriches reed when four years old, and from & pair expected an average of fifty healthy chick 8 ns every year for twenty years.
 WILLIAM G. LE Duo. t San Diego, Cal, July 28, 1883.
 Death on Mont Blanc.
 kJuly 2O) Correspondenee Providence I
 Journall