Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1892-01-29
OSTRICH FARMING.
Description of the Novel Industry - y.
Southern California.

In Southern California and on the
Pacific coast of the United States, os-
trich farming has already been deVel-
9ped to a point of protltableness, ano
the plains of the interior, where nov
too arid, ought to provide sultaoie
grounds for keeping these Dirds,
which require enormous areas for run
ning in.
One who for years has been engaged
in the business in Southern Call1oF-
MIA, recently told a reporter OF the
Star that 'the habits Of the os-
trich are thoroughly well understood
nowadays through observation OF do-
mesticated specimens. Perhaps tnc
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, OF
scrapes out one, and tramDles it into
a saucer-shaped nest about six feet In
diameter. The female Lays her eggs
pretty much anywhere in the neigh
borho0d of the nest, and her mate
takes care that they are collected.
During his time for setting he is ex-
ceedingly pugnacious and 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 q
man 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
plucked for their feathers, though
probably they were not bred in con-
fnement. More than century ago
many farmers in South Africa had
tame ostriches on their farms, allowed
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 un-
known length of time kept ostriches
for feathers, bartering with them
for cloth and other commodities.
The most beautiful of the plumes are
obtained from the wings, and one
reason for the great usefulness of the
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 we'll un.
derstood tame ostrich feathers are
less beautiful and, therefore, bring a
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 plucking ar
rives my birds are driven into a mar.
row pen, where they are so tightly
crowded as 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. xtbaSs s,ss.
about twelve in each wing. and thev
often retail for as much as 500 apiece
must be taken before they are ouite
matured. Their growth has to he
watched so as to get them at their
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. NeYt
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 a tame feather is immediatelv
perceptible 10 a 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.-Farm, Field
StOckman.