Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1894-08-04
TWO WAYS.
Tho wastefulness of Mankind in Regard
to Natural Resources.

Tho wastefulness of Mankind in Regard
to Natural Resources.
Mankind is almost invariably waste
full with natural resources, and is espe-
cially destructive of wild animals
which yield valuable commercial prod
ucts. The skin of the buffalo was so
extremely useful that in the space of
fifty years the millions upon millions
of buffaloes which roamed the plains
west of the Mississippi were eXter-
minated. What we have done with our
buffaloes the inhabitants of French
Algeria and the wilder races to the
southwark of them, have done with
their ostriches. In taking them for
their plumes they have either exter-
minated them, or else driven them
completely away to the southwark out
of their reach. Thus they have de-
prived themselves, as the hunters of
the western prairies did, of consider
able source of income
This is what the Arabs and other
tribes of western Asia had already
done. Ostriches were once abundant
in Asia, but now are found only in
small numbers in some almost mac
4
A different policy has been pursued
by the thrifty Dutch and English far
mers of South Africa. They, too,
hunted the ostrich until he ceased to
be found in wild state within the
limits of Cape Colony, and then they
set at work to domesticate him. In this
they succeeded as admira bly, as the keep
ers of the Yellowstone National park
have succeeded in domesticating the
| buffalo.
| Ostrich farming is now lucrative
business in South Africa. Eggs are
procured and artifcially or naturally
Matched and are worth twenty-five dol
lars apiece. Young birds are worth
| more than good horse in many parts
of the United States-and fine ma
| ture male ostrich is worth three hun
dred and fifty dollars. Yet not many
years ago birds of this sort were pur-
sued and killed merely to get three or
| four feathers out of their tails.
| To some extent the negroes of Sene-
gal shame their French neighbors, who
have permitted the determination of
| the ostrich farther to the northward
and eastward They have domesticated
many of the birds without difficulty.
They are, however, curiously afraid of
them. All ostriches are exceedingly
fond of picking up bright articles of
every lSind-jewels, trinkets, bracelets
and the like; and the Senegal ostriches
include among such articles the glis-
tening eyes of the Senegal babies. 1t
is necessary to keep the children rigidly
| guarded from the gigantic birds; for
the Senegal natives have not yet
learned to construct pens or yards for
the ostriches.
At the last advices, there were in
Cape Colony eighty thousand ostriches
kept for their plumes; and the market
for feathers has not become seriously
overstocled. Ostriches have been
proftably kept in the southern coun
tries of South America and in Cali
fornia, although as yet on no such
scale as in South Africa.
The time is evidently near when al
manner of wild creatures, which have
heretofore yielded valuable products
except those which live in the sea-
must be kept in some sort of captivity
or domestication in order to keep ny
the supply of their products. Not al
wild creatures will yield their product.
once year, as the ostrich and the an
CORA and Cashmere goat, the llama
the alpaca or guanaco, which have al
been domesticated. do. But it has beer
found profitable to raise certain ami
mails for the value of the skin, which
| tbev can WELD but once and that unor
their death.
The skunk, which yields the really
valuable "black martin" fur of com
merce, is being maintained on severa
skunk farms" in the United States fol
the sake of his skin; and it is believed
by many that in certain parts of tn,
west buffalo raising, for the fur, bee
and other products from the carcass
could be made profitable. Youth'
COmpanion,