The Irish standard., 1892-07-09
OSTRICHES AT THE FAIR.
A Ranch Opened Near the Expo
sition Grounds.
The Only Ostrich Farm West of Califor"
nia-A Novel and Interesting Ex-
hibit for the Coming Great
Worlds Fair.

Oakwood, just below the worlds fair
grounds, is boasting of the only ostrich
farm in the country outside of Callfor-
MIA, says the Chicago News.
The California-African ostrich farm
exhibit has thirty-fve of the great be-
plumed bipeds strutting around under
the watchful eye Of E. J. johnson, who
brought his long-necked pets ali the
way from the Pacific coast in a furni-
ture car. The birds arrived in Chicago
in the night and were taken to Oakwood
the next day. marched down a runway
into the inclosure and all Oakwood
climbed the fence to look. The
ostriches, seventeen hens and thirteen
cocks, are to form part of the California
worlds fair exhibit, and were brought
here through the efforts of E. Q. Lam
phere, the real estate dealer. A corral
has been built at Oakwood and the
ostriches will now be put through the
process of acclination. Nearly all of the
birds were Matched in an incubator and
are considered an unusually well-select-
ed lot, all strong, healthy, fine specl-
mems. They come from the Fall Brook
ostrich farm in San Diego county, Cal,
and are the offspring of the twenty
three birds brought from Africa by
Manager johnson in 1888. There are
over one hundred left behind in Califor-
MIA, and what was an experiment few
years ago is now regarded as an assured
success.
The older birds at the OalSwood farm
have plunes of beautiful glossy black,
but the hens and cllicks-one Of those
same chicks can look over a ten-foot
fence without straining a lnnscle---are a
mixture of drah and brown. The cocks
mature at five years of age: the hens at
four, and, although the average life is
twenty-five years, they have been
known to live much longer. The birds
at Oal1wocd are valued at five hundred
dollars each. and are good for fifty to
sixty dollars worth Of plumes each
wear. They are plucked every eight
months. Manager Johnson has named
his giant turkeys after the celebrities
of the day. Gail Hamilton, a ter~foot
maiden with Delsartean balance 60
her walk and firtatious twinkle in
her eye. is far from being as sweet-tem-
pered and a1niable as the name would
suggest Benjamin Harrison is plamed
knight. not very large, but stout,
sturdy and pugnacious. James G.
Blaine was sold to Denver admirer
lust before the convention, and John
T.. Sullivan has gone to Honolulu.
Grover Cleveland is q huge fellow,
black and brown, with an expansive
spread to his bill and a soft spot in his
heart for Gail Hamilton.
II believe an ostrich farm could be
operated here as a. permanent thing"
said Mr.. Johnson. "Ostriches can
stand deal of cold, and am going to
test this lot of birds this year | think
they'll breed here all right. In few
tlays will have a. Petaluma incubator
all set up, ready for Matching. feed
the ostriches on feed, grain, vegetables
and grass. Yes, they will eat nails, but
I'd rather they'd take something not
quite SO long-glass, for instance. They
swallow such things to help them pre-
pare THEN, food for digestion. 1t doesn't
hurt t!leun,'' and he threw a large Cali
fornia onion to Gail Hamilton, who
swallowed it at a gulp and another
and another. until her distended neck
looked like section of I'll bamboo fish
ing rod with the knobs six inches apart.