Morning journal and courier., 1886-03-05
EEaE OSTRICH BONANZA BURST
No Money Now i'm the Business. [ 1,;a1

' NO 4AVhkCY NON AA th0 Rbu81nfSBs From the London Field
 Contemporaneously with the discovery O ! the diamond fields in South Africa, althougl ! with much less rapid strides, but slowly ant 1 surely, thus quietly forcing itself to thu | front, and almost entirely fevolutionizin, ! the whole system of pastoral farming, cam, | the practice of breeding, rearing and farm \ ing ostriches. Ostrich farming may be fair 1 ly said to date not further back than tn year 1865. In 1869-9 MT. J. Boysen of Graa | Reinet and MT. Joel Meyers of Aberdeen en | tered into the business of ostrich farming Or
 @ somewhat elaborate scale. If I am no
 mistaken the first advertisement of domesti ! cated ostriehes for sale in the colony emana I ted from the former gentleman. He plucki I ly persisted in the then very novel underta 1 king with varying fortune, until it had ! reached it's meridian of success in 1878 ! 1879 and 1880, when, in return for his un- 1 wavering perseverance and faith in it's ulti- l mate possibilities, he reaped substantial 1 pecuniary reward. In 1974-5 Messrs. Doug | las of Grahamstown, Hobson of Ebenezer, GraaH Reinet and J. s. Parkes of Wheat lands, commenced fencing and ostrich farm ! ing and breeding intelligent and ex- tensive scale. The frst-named gentleman was the introducer of the artificial incubator | into the colony, when breeding became a l matter of science and intelligent study.
 So engressed was the colonial world with this all absorbing topic Of ostrich farming that, go where you would, ostriches (Vogels treuse), were the universal theme of discus sion, as diamonds had been some half dozen years previously. Here was an Fl Dorado brought home to every mans door. The plethorie, lethargic Boer, sitting on his steep, with pipe in mouth and cup of coffee at his elbow, would revel in day dreams of auriferous showers Every chick that hur- ried at his call to pick up the scattered frag- ments of domestic refuse represented so many bank notes, and every snowy, graceful feather on those of larger growth betokened each a solid piece of gold. Who, in lieu of this, would ''grunt and sweat under weary load' of stock and agricultural cares? What were the ravages of brandzickte, geelzickte, rust, locusts and drought to him nowa Noth- ing but mere idle, troublesome dream of the past.
 knew Boer who had been repeatedly of
 fered seven hundred pounds for pair of
 breeding birds. He declared he would not
 take one thousand pounds. They were the most remarkable pair Of prolific breeders l ever saw or heard of. Four broods 8 year as regular as clockwork, with an average of if teen to brood; these he would sell when four months old at fifteen pounds apiece
 thus realizing a gross income of nine hun dred pounds yearly. On the other hand many pairs are utterly or next to worth
 ess-irregular layers and evenly, inatten- tive housekeepers, the consequences of such dereliction being nestful after nestful of addled eggs. 1 knew an amusing instance where a hen would not take her legitimate share-always a joint affair-in the work of incubation; and I have known the old
 male to literally kick his unwilling spouse on to the nest every morning, so as te keep
 up the warmth resulting from his own de
 votion during the previous night. The me- ridian of success was, as I have remarked,
 -I,o,, nearly every available plot of ground suit
 able for the purpose, even gardens and
 back yards in towns and villages, were
 improvised for the time into breeding and
 rearing paddocks. Feathers were at their
 maximum prices in those days, prime
 whites ranging from forty pounds to as
 high, in some instances, as seventy pounds
 per pound; frst-class breeding birds from
 two to three hundred pounds per pair; young, full-grown plucking birds from
 twenty-five to thirty-five pounds each; nine
 months old birds, with chicken feathers on, from twelve to fifteen pounds; chicks,
 just out of the shell, five pounds As 8 nat ural consequence of such high prices specu- lation during these years became very rife. As an instance I remember purchasing in 1878 hundred young birds of mixed ages, ranging from four to nine months old at ten pounds per head. I plucked them twice, the proceeds giving me an average of eight pounds per Dlfu then, 1mmeulateIy after the last plucking, sold them at twenty-five pounds per bird all round, thus realizing a very handsome profit.
 And so the merry game went round until at last, as has long been anticipated by the
 less sanguine ones, the fatal ''bust up" came, involving in it's train & series of disastrous and ruinous failures. It was in 1881 that the great tidal wave of prosperity began to ebb. Diseases of an obscure name of the liver and lungs became prevalent. The price of feathers came down with a run to less than third of their former value. Chickens drug in the market at 2s. 6d. per
 chick! Breeding and plucking birds almost, if not quite, unstable. Panic, general de- pression and insolvency rampant every where. What overproduction was gradually threatening to achieve, disease and falling market finally accomplished. A friend, largely engaged in ostrich farming at the time, wrote to me in 1882: "We are in the