The herald., 1898-03-27
OSTRICH FARMING
HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRY IN
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
FIRST BIRDS IMPORTED IN 1882
Branch Of the Original Farm Located
in the City-Where the Plumes
Are Prepared for Market

The ostrich is an accommodating bird.
both in its appetite and habitation, whether
1t be in the deserts of the Barbary states.
the plains and hills of South Africa, the
ranch lands of Southern California or
Fiesta park in the center of the city of
Los Angeles. 1t lays its eggs, rears Its
young, yields it's beautiful plumes and
makes itself equally at home in all its sur
roundings. Like everything In nature from
molecules to man, from seeds to the giant
oaks of the mountains, the ostrich sue
cumbs to the seductive influence of the
California climate and develops more
fully rounded body, lovelier plumage and
laws eggs of more mammoth proportions
here than in it's native wilds. Dame Nature
has inflicted on this huge bird ungainly
legs and an undue proportion of neck, but
she more than made up for it in the glossy
black, soft white and gray plumes of the
WINGS such as no other bird in the feath-
cred kingdom possesses, and herein lies
Its chief value.
The ostrich industry in Southern Califor-
MIA, II industry 1t can be called, dates from
late in the year 1882, when it began with
twenty-five birds imported from South
Africa, via New York, by DR.. Protheroe.
These were sold for $21 900 to a company
formed under the name of the California
Ostrich Farming company. of which Moses
Hopkins, a brother of the great railroad
magnate, was president. The farm. COM
prising sixty acres, was located seven
miles southeast of Anaheim. In 1887 tho
birds were moved to a smaller tract of
land north of Anaheim, near Fullerton.
Later in the year 1882 the American Os-
trich Farming company was started in the
far away state of Maine, with c. F. A.
Johnson president and his son, E. Johnson,
manager. Mr.. johnson, jr., went to South
Africa and purchased twenty-three birds
and succeeded in landing them safely by
way of New Orleans in 1854. They were
finally located on land in the valley of San
Luis Rey at Mount Fairview, seven miles
from Fullerton. DR.. Charles ]. Sketchley.
who was instrumental In forming the CAL
ifornia company and was its first manager,
imported thirty-three more birds in 1856 and
placed them on a farm named Kenilworth,
on the Los Feliz rancho, near this city.
This venture was not successful and n
number of the birds were purchased by Mr..
Perry, who took them to Santa Monica.
In 1866 Edwin Cawston, who now owns
the Norwalk ostrich farm, went to South
brought them to this country by way of
Galveston. They were placed in Washing
ton Gardens in this city and were after
wards taken to Norwalk. In 1891 the Cali
fornia company went out of business and
the birds came into possession of Edward
Atherton, who now owns the Fullerton os
trich farm. Mr.. Atherton was born on the
Cape in South Africa, of English parents,
60 x1-itb bn Of
triches all his life. He came to the United
States with a cargo of plumes and after
disposing of them found his way to Cali
fornia and was engaged by the company
first named as manager of their farm.
Like many other enterprises in Southern
California. the ostrich industry was uphill
work and suffered from a variety of causes.
The birds were imported at heavy cost;
their management under new conditions
had to be learned; there were no wild os-
trich chicks from which to replenish the
flocks when the Matching was unsuccessful.
The difference in the price of land in South
Africa and Southern California was an
other important factor in increasing the
expense, and labor was obtained at much
greater cost.
There were more domesticated birds i'm
pOTteu lHtO SdlllOTHld up 10 tHe year 1881
than existed in Cape colony in 1865, when
the industry was first started there. Ten
years later, however, the increase at the
Cape was four to five hundredfold, while
in California there are today not more than
250 birds.
There are twenty-five ostriches now at
Coronado, and two of the eleven native
birds were transferred there in 1893 Thirty
were taken to the Worlds fair and sold
In Europe at good prices. The ostrich has
been regarded in the light of a curiosity
rather than a source of profit in California
but 1t is the beautiful plumage that gives
1t the chief value.
Some idea of the profit of these birds
under favorable conditions may be gained
from the fact that the London sales of
plumes from South Africa annually amount