Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1892-01-29
OSTRICH FARMING.
Description OF the NoveI Industry Of
southern caIlt1rnia-


In Southern California and on the
Pacific coast Of the United States, os-
trich farming has already been devel-
9ped to point of profitableness, and
the plains of the interior, where not
too arid, ought to provide suitable
grounds for keeping these birds,
which require enormous areas for rum
ming in.
One who for years has been engaged |
in the business in Southern Califor-
MIA, recently told a reporter OF the
Star that 'sthe habits OF the os-
trich are thoroughly well understood
nowadays through observation of do
mesticated specimens. Perhaps the
most extraordinary fact about the
bird is that it is the male that does
most of the setting. He selects a.
convenient hollow in the ground, or
scrapes out one, and tramples it into
a saucer-shaped nest about six feet in
diameter. The female Lays her eggs
pretty much anywhere in the neigh
borhood of the nest, and her mate
takes care that they are collected.
During his time for setting he is ex-'
ceedinglY pugnacious and a very
formidable animal to encounter The
kick Of the bird, which is its means of
lighting, is enormously powerful
sufficiently so, in fact, to disable
MAJ and very likely kill him at one
blow.
! ''Ostrich farming isnOt an industry
altogether new to the world. The
birds were certainly domesticated
very anciently and were doubtless
splucked for their feathers, though
probably they were not bred in con-
tinement. More than a century ago
many farmers in South Africa had
tame ostricnes on their farms, aliiilc;sSe.ss
to feed at large, which supplied their
owners with plumes that were made
into brooms for mosquito fans. Vari-
Gus tribes in Africa have for an I'M
known length Of time kept ostricbes
for feathers, bartering with them
for cloth and other commodities.
The most beautiful Of the plumes are
obtained from the wings, and ono
reason for the great usefulness of tho
incubator is that many of the feath-
ers are apt to be spoiled during the
operation of sitting on the eggs.
For some reason not very well un.
derstood tame ostrich feathers afe
less beautiful and, therefore, bring q
lower price in the market than those
of the wild ostrich, but the wild bird
is disappearing so rapily that the
tame will have the market to himself
before very long.
"When the season for plueking ar
rives my birds are driven into mar
row pen, where they are so tightly
crowded IS not to be able to move,
while the operator stands on a plat
form outside and cuts off the plumes
close to the flesh. The very valuable
feathers on the wings-there are
about twelve in each wing, and they
often retail Tor as much as 500 apiece
must be taken before they are quite
matured. Their growth has to be
watched so as to get them at thei5
best Most perfect and, therefore,
most costly of all ostrich feathers
are those brought from Aleppo and
obtained from the birds Of the Syrian
Desert. They are very rare. Next
in order of quality are those from
Tripoli, from Senegal, from Egypt,
from Morocco and from South Afri-
ca. The difference between a wild
and tame feather is immediately
perceptible TO connoisseur. While
the tame feather is much sitter, it
has not the natural, graceful fall of
the wild feather, and, even when
dressed and curled it becomes stiff
again after a while. Field
StOckman.