Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1898-02-09
in taiI-ueig6t packages 4t all Grocers'.
ELDER TOWN IS COSTLY.

Bat 1. 900 I'OuDdA . Year Ussd. and tha
 Cheapest Costs Sio . Pound
 There are only about 1000
 pounds of cider down used in this country in q year, |" said a veteran down importer of this city when asked about the quality of cider down used in quilts sold for 6 oI @. There are three grades, and the range in price is t1O, SIP and SIS a pound.
 The down is imported chiefly from Greenland and Iceland, where it Is gathered by the natives When the ducks build their nests, they line them with down plucked from their own breasts. This first lining is the finest quality of down After a nest is robbed the ducks line it the second and third times, each time the grade of down becoming poorer, as there are a greater number of small feathers mixed in. After the third robbing the ducks quit the nest and do not build again until the next season.
 Elder down is about twice as bulky us the finest goose down that is, one pound of cider down will serve as a filling where two of the best goose down would be necessary. Owing to its scarcity and costliuess 1t is used only in filling the most expensive cushions and quilts. It eIn be used to a greater advantage and is really the only satisfactory filling for elegant smoking jackets, huff. beds, women's skirts and ba- bies' clothing.
 'The next quality of down is goose down, which is produced in the United States. the larger part coming from the western and south- ern states. There are three grades of it-$3, s and S1.50 a pound. The first grade is the pure down, plucked from the breast of the live goose. The other two grades are ex- tracted by machinery from the feathers of poultry plucked for the market. The feathers are sold iD bulk, unsorted, and have to be sep arated by special machines. The on- ly goose down imported comes from China It is white, but not so fluffy as the American, and consequently used only for cheaper filling.
 Duck down is imported almost exclusively from China in feathers. There are about three grades. The best or pure down sells for S1 25 and is used in making a fair quality of quilts, Innings, pillows, etc The other two grades, bringing S1 and s cents a pound, are made by leav- ing a certain per cent of feathers in the down. These feathers, as i'm ported from China, arc exceedingly dirty, and the cleaning and separat- ing, which are done by machinery, are very expensive. The yield of down is about 10 or 12 per cent; of dirt, 30 to 40 per cent; the rest is feathers. These feathers are a little better, when thoroughly steamed and cleaned, than our native chick en feathers, which, as all house keepers should know, are the cheap est feathers.
 This Chinese doW.l is from the ducks which tie Chinese consume in great quantities. AS rice is their chief breadstuff, ducks are their chief meat. One duck will furnish a meal for 20 Chinamen. The fowl is boiled until the flesh drops from the bones. It is then hashed very fine, and with its gravy used to season boiled rice enough for about 20 men Of course a number of these ducks are reared and consumed in China. and as the Chinaman makes no par ticular use of the feathers these ars shipped to this country and Europe. There are about 1, GOO, 900 pounds of feathers imported to the United States each year from China, while from Austria and Germany come several hundred thousand pounds of down, extracted from Chinese feath- CTS.
 Chicken feathers, which have no life in them, are chiefly used in cheapening down, and cheaper grades are made by mixing in cat tails, light cotton or rabbit hair. These last three may always be de tected by beating the article, as the and rabbit hair will inva- riably sift through and the cotton will lump. Good down may always be judged by its feeling and its pow er to rebound. 4 cushion well filled with cider or the next best thing, goose down, when press ed will reshape itself almost as quickly as an india rubber ball "- New York Sun.
 Her Finish