The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-24

Utah will soon have an entirely new and
surprisingly novel industry 1t will be
nothing less than an ostrich farm and will
be established by Edwin Cawston, pro-
prietor OF the Norwalk farm in southern
| California, located midway between Los
Angeles and Pasadena. Mr.. Cawston has
been negotiating to this end for some
/ time. ard after giving the matter of
climate and other considerations atten-
ton. has concluded TO carry out the ide;,.
I He is so favOrably impressed with SIT
Lake that he sent Mr.. A. Y. Pearson
! here TO look over the ground ard select
! a location 1t will require 20 acres for
/ the purpose. and Mr.. Pearson has selected
"A location between the city and Fort
I Douglas. which answers all requirements.
Mr.. Pearson expects to close up the deal
within few days and Salt Lake will then
nave one more attraction for visitors.
The Jubilee commission learned of
MI Cawston plans and have requested
him to send a herd of ostriches here in
time for exhibition during the Jubilee
Mr. Pearson has. at the request of the
commission. wired Mr.. Cawston a long
message, requesting that a car load of
the immense birds be sent on at once
and has no doubt but that the request
will be granted. After the Jubilee the
oStrlcheS VIII be moved to the farm
which VIII be their permanent home
Mr.. Cawston has the only ostrich farm
in the United States. and & has proven
complete success. the sale of the feath-
ers and birds making the enterprise i'm
mensely profitable.
In 1885. Mr.. Edwin Cawston chartered
a sailing ship and embarked with p
birds from South Africa the home of the
Dlped. where they are raised in large
numbers. Ten persisted in transit so
that y arrived after a smooth passage
safely ~ California. But the imports
never seemed TO fully recover from their
long seq VOYAGE and at this tine only
one of the q survives From them how
ever, . number of fertile eggs Matched
and hundreds of native California
ostrlches annually yield their t-:bute of
feathers to the American trade Con-
sidering the risk of transit the wild
nature Of the birds. the danger of accli-
HlaLzatlon ana the long sea voyage the
result may. be considered decided sue
An average bird weighs about 90
pounds and stands seven feet high: it is
oinniVerous, carniverous to some extent
and voracious; it will eat stones. leather
oranges, and has been known to swallow
gimie5s. lighted pipes. and even newspa-
pers properly rolled for consumption Tho
1000 IN ITS stomach; gravel has to be
supplied them freely for this purpose
JUS as fishbones 10 canaries.
Every few months the birds are ex-
auined and the ripe feathers plucked
This requires certain amour of exper-
fence and skill; careless plucking will in
feather root injured. injury is done thar
'."n peve' he remedied: for when
socket is pulled out a feather can never
elv" again Tne short feathers are pulled
out without any apparent pain to the
creature. as they are ripe and would fall
Oft in the course of nature If not extract
ed by the skilled operator: the heavy
wing feathers are cut off with short scis-
sors. the stumps being left in the skin:
these are ripe for extraction about three
months after piucking takes place The
society for the suppression of cruelty to
bras, of which the Princess of Wales is
president. expressly excepted the ostrich
from its list of unfortunates. AS has been
said. the extraction of feathers from the
ostrich by skiilful operators is without
pain to the bird. Three crops of feathers
are yielded at the ostrich farm IN TWO
years. though. of course plucking takes
place more frequently. Each lrd is worth
about $50 per annum in feathers. and
most of them live. in Africa. to the good
old age of 20 years. Their value varies
from $40 a pair for chicks to 5000 a pair
for full grown breeding birds. three years
old and upwards The chicks are very
hardy and easy to raise.