The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1891-03-28
AN OSTRICH FARM.
AN AFRICAN INDUSTRY IN
CALIFORNIA.
Profitable Birds to Raise-How
Ostriches are Matched by
Means Of Incubators - An
Ostrich Plucking.

Ostrich Plucking.
A mile below Santa Monica, Cal, i:
en- ostrich farm of something like sixty
! or seventy birds. Some of these are oil
the original stock brought from Cape
Colony in 1882, but most of them are
natives. These awkward birds are a
never ending source of interest to the
tourist, aad many an honest two-bits
drops into the slot at the gate entrance
as the fee for seeing the ostriches. But
the South African bird has proved profit
able on American soil, not alone as an
attraction for Sunday garden or side
show for a land boom. Every bird is
worth money, and every bird makes its
owner money.
There are at least half a dozen ostrich
farms in Southern California They have
ceased TO be a curiosity there, and each
now represents commercial enterprise
Americans buy one-half the millions of
ostrich feathers produced annually. 1t is
estimated that this country expends So, =
600, 600 wear for these ornaments. Each
ostrich when full grown yields a feather
income of from $500 to $500 per annum.
The elegant, long, black and white
plumes sell for So each at the farms, and
readily bring SO each at retail in New
York or Chicago.
Every feather has value. If it is
sufficiently large for use it is worth at
least 10 cents. The very small ones,
otherwise useless, make UP into cheap
souvenirs and are eagerly purchased by
visiting tourists at prices varying from 10
cents to 81. The plumcs produced in
Southern California are fully as valuable
es those from the PARKWAY Cape Colony.
The eggs, if fertile, sell for $25 each
and generally from Is to 50 per cent Of
all eggs produced will hatch If not fer
tile the shells are in demand at from So
to s. each as curios and ornaments. A
young ostrich just out of the shell is con-
sidered equivalent to $50, and his value
increases until he is full grown, when
$500 is low market price.
The expense of maintaining an ostrich
farm is comparatively slight. The birds
in this country are usually healthy their
sppetites are appalling, but they are salts
fed with alfalfa, cabbage and crushed
bones for regular diet. On occasions
they expect large and small pebbles, bits
of iron, old shoes, tin cans and such deli
cacies. A hungry ostrich is not particu-
lar about his food. 1t is merely ques-
ton of deglutitioa with him. If what he
eats will go down-or rather up-his
somew hat elastic throat for he eats and
drinks head downWard) he feels safe TO
trusts his digestive organs to do the rest
The senses of sight, smell and hearing
of the ostrich are keen. He is very
timid, and is startled by slight noise.
He can see man at distance of three
miles, and the ostrich hunter who APP
proaches his game with the wind will be
discovered long before he is within gun
shot.
Ostriches are not only cautious and able
to run at great speed, but they are fight
ers. A stroke of one of the powerful
wings will fell man. and kick from a
fuil-grown bird would be more disastrous
than well-directed blow from the right
arm of John L. Sullivan. Ostriches are
very curious, and their inquIsitiveness
will sometimes lead them into trouble, but
if injured in any way and they escape,
nothing can persuade them to repeat the |
same experiment
One day at the Santa Monica ostrich |
farm, a keeper accidentally knocked the !
top rail off one of the paddocks. A /
large male ostrich had been watching |
him with interest. The rail fell upon |
the birds neck and caused him some |
pain. He rushed away from danger,
and, Though not alarmed by the presence
Of any other keeper, he never recovered |
his confidence in the one to whom he |
charged his mishap, but when the keeper
took post at the farthermost
end Of the Enclosure, and could not be
ooaxed to come within reach of him.
The ostrich egg shell is sometimes
of an inch thick. 1t is
'ully twenty -fonr times the size of an Or
iinary hens egg. Incubation requires
orty days, during which period the male
md female alternate in the domestic daty
If keeping the eggs warm. Most of the
is now done by incubators. A
ree-hundred-egg incubator has q ca
'acity for but twenty-sevcn ostrich eggs.
At the farm to which special reference
las been made l saw the birds on the
lest, and the young ostriches after they
we're removed from the nest are to be
cen.
The eggs at this sitting nearly all
atched. The nest consisted of pile of
and in the center of the small field as
igned to the two breeders. The male
ird manifested the utmost interest in
he business in hand and devoted moro
han fifteen hours day TO the maternal
uty of sitting on the eggs. When his
late was on the nest he would shield her