Huntsville gazette., 1885-10-10
OSTRICH FARMERS.
The Manner In Which an Interesting Cali.
fofnin Industry Is Carried On.

The Manner in Which an Interesting Cali
fornia Industry Is Carried On.
Hello! what are you doingp" was
asked yesterday of an old Cincinnatian
who was on Change, but who for sew
eral years has been a resident of Lower
California.
'Got new business. Lots of money
in it. am running an ostrich farm
and have done SO well that I'm think
ing of importing couple of hundred
more birds from Cape Town.
"Where's the money!"
"Why, in the feathers, man. They
retail at several dollars apiece. and the
demand for them is continually in
creasing and will so long as women
possess vanity"
''How many feathers will an ostrich
yield?''
''That depends. Some of them as
much as fifteen pounds at a clipping;
others not more than three. The longy
white plumes that the ladies all over
the world prize SO highly grow on the
ends of the wings of the males. A
good bird in his prime will yield from
twenty to forty of these feathers, be-
sides few black feathers from the
wings. The tail feathers are not so
valuable or beautiful. The hen yields
fine plumes from her wing tips, but
they are generally spotted and tlecked
with gray and are called feminines.
Those which in the male bird are black
are gray with her,
"How many does it take to make
pound?"
From one hundred and twenty to
one hundred and thirty good long
feathers 60 to the pound. They are
packed carefully in cases with plenty
of pepper and tobacco so as to prevent
their injury by vermin and moths. y
"They are sorted, | suppose?"
''Oh yes, according to their quality
and purity of color. The pure whites
the next quality prime whites. firsts,
seconds and so on. 'Bloods' bring
from two hundred to two hundred and
fifty dollars a pound in the wholesale
market, and from this figure feathers
run down as low as few dollars to
the pound
What are the birds worth?''
"a healthy bird a week old is worth
fifty dollars; at three months, seventy
five dollars; at six months, one hun
dred and fifty dollars. You can begin
to pluck the feathers when the bird is
a year old and they will yield about
thirty-five dollars worth apiece"
when do you pair themP"
fsvo
old; then each pair yields from eight
cen to twenty-four eggs each season.
These pairs are kept in Enclosures by
themselves because the males are very
jealous and they take sudden fits and
will fight ferociously, frequently tear
ing each others eyes out. pulling out
feathers and sometimes breaking legs"
''Do they kick bard?"
'.Why a blow from one of their legs
has been known to break mans leg.
while the claw, above an inch long, of
the front toe will tear the flesh from
head to foot. The wound from this is
said to be poisonous"
'How about raising young ostriches?"
That's done by Matching the eggs
with an incubator The chicks thrive
and do well. Ostriches pair about the
beginning of March and the female
lays her eggs toward the end of April.
Her nest is hollow basin that she
scrapes out of the sand. She lays about
two dozen eggs and arranges them in
the nest in the form of triangle, with
the point in front of her. Some of the
eggs do not get Matched. and these she
breaks to feed to the young ones that
are Matched for the first few weeks
they are out of their shell. 1t takes
six weeks to hatch the young birds and
in three weeks they attain their full
size. They live great deal together,
and it is not uncommon to see the
nests of a large family together, the
grandfather and grandmother in the
middle and the younger generations
gathered round about
''What do you feed these young os-
triches Matched out by the incubators?
1.-The principal food is lucerne and
thistles and tender herbs that grow in
the country. Old birds will feed on
matured herbs and plants, the leaves
of which they will strip off with their
beaks. They are also fed on Indian
corn. of which they are very fond"
Are they vicious when breeding?'
''Yes; especially. the male, which has
been known to attack and kill a man.
They are a fearless animal at such
times. When the female leaves the
nest the MAKE sta upon the eggs, and
while she is sitting he walks about in a
lordly manner in order that no harm
may come. - Cincinnati Enquirer.