The Opelousas courier., 1892-10-29
THE CANARY BIRD TRADE
a HOUSE INDUSTRY OF NEEDY
! GERMAN PEASANTS.

Country Buys the Most Canaries.
!T7OR more than a century the
II business of raising canaries has
y rendered bare. existence q pos
q sibility to many poor people
in Germany. Fifty years ago it had
already grown to such dimensions that
it became necessary to seek a foreign
outlet for the trade. About 1850 the
German dealers began making shipments
to New York, and finally they turned
their attention chiefly to the United
States, the demand from this side OF the
water having become very great. Dur
ing the last year canary birds were
third in money value among the articles
| exported to the United States from
Hanover.
The breeding of canary birds IN Ger
many is mainly a house industry of poor
and needy people. Their profit is, of
| course, small; but to the poor, who can
hardly earn daily bread, their bird cages
are like little savings banks, from which
they can draw at regular intervals a triie
that, added to their other earnings
| enables them to make ends meet. The
! canary bird industry, without making
any serious claim upon the PEASANTS
time or care, cheers his home and brings
him a modest profit. Having in the
summer raised q brood of young birds,
he awaits with anxiety the visit of the
dealer in the autumn, which will place
in his hands money to help him through
the winter.
The principal seat of the industry was
formerly thS Hartz Mountains, where the
poor mountaineers, engaged chiefly n
mining and numbering, were in great
need. Almost every family had in the
sitting-room, IN the bedroom, or in gar
ret breeding place for birds. In the
summer the food necessary for the birds
was easily obtainable, and before the
winter came the dealer had purchased
them. After the Hartz Mountains be-
came more ~frequented by visitors desir-
Gus of improving their health in the pure
air. the poverty of the mountaineeis was
diminished, and the canary bird indus
try fell off more and more, At present
only fine singers are bred in the Hartz,
and for these the dealer must pay a high
price. The industry was then transferred
to Eichsfelde, in the province Of Han
over, where there are many poor weav-
ers. Nearly all of these are now en-
gagged in the breeding of the cheaper
varieties of canary birds. The industry
exists also in the poorer districts of
Hesse, in the great Lunenburg Moor, in
parts of Westphalia, and among the
Sudetic Mountains in Saxny. About
$50, 900 canar birds are raised every
year in Germany.
First in Importance is the market OF
the United States, which takes in round
numbers 100, 900 birds per annum. Next
is the English market, which takes about
SO, 900 per annum. Then come Brazil,
Chile, the Argentine Republican Aus
tral1a. To these esuntries statesmen are
sent with canary birds every year. The
rest, especially the finer Hartz birds, are
sold in Germany, where more weight is
given to fneness of song and where
higher prices can be obtained than any
where else. The average price for ordi-
nary canary birds is from sixty to eighty
cents for males. Hence the canary bird
industry adds about LOCO, 900 marks per
year to G~ermany's National wealth, and
this amount goes chiefly into the hands
of the poorest class
The growth of this industry is due to
two causes: The German bird dealers
have always been very enterprising, and
the canary birds raised in Germany are
said to sing better than any others.
While very beautiful birds are raised in
England, in song they are surpassed by
the German canaries. German dealers
claim that canary birds bred from i'm.
ported parents in the United States are
poor singers, owing to the warmth of
our climate.
About two-thirds of the 100, 900
canary birds exported annually from
Germany to the United States are inn
ported by a German resident of New
York. At Braunlage, in the Hartz, this
man has a factory which is capable of
turning out every day the material for
one thousand bird cages. The material
rs given Ou1 W tuC pSasdutsJ WIZ MIAMI
the cages at home. The birds are
shipped to New York. via Bremen, ac-
companied by attendants. Each at
tendant has under his care about 1000
birds, each in its wooden cage. AS each
bird must be fed aud cared for regular
ly, the attendants are kept busily en-
ployed. One of these attendants has
already crossed the ocean more than a
hundred times in charge of birds. There
age thirty such employees. The New
York house disposes of these birds-the
finest amorg them being the Audreas-
berger Hartz canaries-in New Orleans,
Charleston, San Francisco, and other
American cities, as well as in Canada.
Moreover, buyers are sent throughout
the United States to obtain American
birds and animals, aud also to Mexico
and Cuba for parrots. These are brought
to Germany by the canary attendants
upon their return. In this manner this
same person annually imports into Ger.
many from the United States about 5000
Virginia cardinal birds, 5000 nonpareils,
1000 indigo birds, aud 500 hooking
birds.--Boston Transcript.