The Opelousas courier., 1892-09-17
FACTS ABOUT FEATHERS.
SOME CURIOUS USES TO WHICH
THEY ARE PUT.
Cloth That lis Made Out of FeatheFs-
Down From the Elder buck
Value of the Quilts.

S4OOhk AkkGAb Ed
Down From the Elder buck
Value of the Quilts.
IHI I'D you ever see cloth that
30 was made out of feathers2"
- writer for the Washington
Star. every beautiful fabrics are COM
posed of such material. One method is
to clip the barbs from the feathers with
ordinary scissors, putting them into a
bag and kneading them for awhile. AS
a result they are transformed into q mass
Of very light and homogeneous down.
Thus prepared they are manu- etured
into felt by the same processes as are ap.
piled to wool. One pound and a half OF
feathers make a square yard OF q
fabric which is warm, light and durable
and will take any dye. BY weaving the
feather down with cotton or WOODEN yarn
q soft and beautiful cloth is produced,
with a feather fur on both sides.
"The most expensive down, utilized
for making quilts and pillows, is OBJ
tanned from the elder duck. In Norway
and Iceland the business of gatherfeAsk it
constitutes a regular farming indmsxy.
The pursuit Is very remunerative, and it
is governed by special legislation re-
ypecting the collecting of the crop on
islands of the sea and along the margins
of estuaries. These birds are found
throughout the waters of the Arctic
Ocean. and they resort in great numbers
yearly for breeding purposes to Nova
Zembla, Spitzbergen, Lapland, Green
land, Labrador and other far northern
shores. Sometimes they appear On the
coast of Maine aud ever az far south as
Massachusetts, Bay, but the down yielded
In such low ATTITUDES IS inferior In
quality.
"One of the sights of Norway is an
island that is one great rock rising out
of the sea between Ironso and Hammer.
fest. The nests of elder dncks are so
thick upon it that its entire surface
seems to be occupied by them, each
containing at the breeding season it's
complement of young ones. So closely
do the nests initiate the gray tint of the
rock that one would not notice them
save for the countless heads of the birds
looking out of them. When q steamer
goes by the custom is to fire a small cam
non, which so frightens the birds that
all those that can fly rise into the air
with a mighty whirr of wings, literally
d~arkening the sky with their myriads,
while the nestlings squawk pitifully n
chorus.
"The nest building is done in May and
lasts about seven weeks. From four to
six eggs are laid, the nest beng lined
with down plucked By the mother duck
from her own breast. Those who pur-
sue the business described remove the
eggs and down, ~whereupon further sup
plies of the latter are furnished by the
maternal bird, which lays a second
clutch of eggs. These are removed to.
with the down, as before and q
like robbery is committed a third time.
After this theft has been accomplished
thrice the drake contributes down from
his own body and more eggs are laid;
but If these last are stolen the birds in
variably give it up and fly away. One
nest is made in this manner to supply
each season about three ounces
Of dirty-looking brown down. That
which the male supplies is somewhat
ssThe down, after being gathered, Is /
separated into different qualities and
cleaned, the process resulting in
. loss of about one-half its original
It is then sewn in small bags
for export, the best being worth Us 9
pound where it is collected. The down
obtained from dead birds, not being
is Of small value comparatively.
King ducks, which are vastly abundant
on the coasts OF Spitzbergen, Greenland
and Newfoundland, yield a soft down
that is almost equal to that of the elder
duck. In fact this latter product is
ordinarily sold under the name of elder
down. So wonderfully light is the real
that a pound and q half of it is
for a large bed quilt. Cheap
substitutes are very much heavier.
FEW people have any notion of the
enormous value of the feathers yielded
annually by domestic poultry. In Eu-
rope especially ole farmers wives make
. business of collecting and selling the
plumage Of chickens, geese and ducks.
A machine has been devised which
plucks dead fowl at the rate of two d
minute. The bird is laid on q table and
q wheel bearing India rubber pickers
tackles it, the pickers pinching what
ever they meet as they pass across the
top of the table and releasing what they
hold as they pass beneath. The plucked
feathers are sorted roughly by q current
of air, which blows the light ones into q
receptacle, while the heavier ones fall
into a trough beneath. Feathers cast
during the moulting season might be
very pro6tably utilized if women on the
farms would remove them by hand from
the living birds, as might be done With
out occasioning much discomfort TO the
fowls. By neglecting the opportunity
thus afforded tens of thousands Of dol
are lost yearly in this country.
perhaps you never heard of artificial
ostrich feathers. They are d Yankee
invention. The quilts are made of
eelluloid and the barbs of silk waste.
In speaking Of the usefulness Of bird
n must not forget the quilts.
Those utilized for writing, obtained from
geese, are the five outer wing feathers.
the second and third being the best,
The direction Of the curve Of the laff