The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-08-05

earn into more acres, more plants, and
the care of them. He could not borrow
money on any security he could offer,
for nobody shared his enthusiasm nor
had much faith in his experiment. His
work, therefore, was limited by the
capital he could raise as he went along.
but when he began to send the finest
OF cocoa beans TO market DEVELOPMENT
was more rapid. In 1883 Dr. Bibeiro,
eighteen years after he had landed on
an obscure island which many Portu-
guese had never heard of, though 1t
belonged to their country, was already
regarded at home as a very rich man,
and he had been made so by the pro-
ducts of his plantations Though still
young man, he decided in that year
to retire from business and return to
Portugal with his family; so he sold
all his property to the Banco Ultra
marino for Sl,4000O0 and returned home
worth considerably over two millions.
After nine years more of cultivation
and development the plantations he
disposed of are now valued at ST.
400, 900.
This young man found what an is
land was good for and there was
fortune in the discovery 1t was easy
enough for others to follow in the
paths he made, and it is really due to
Dr. Bibeiro that this African island to-
day has the aspect of one great plan
tation on which labor is richly remun-
Grated Sixty thousand persons live on
the little island, even 1000 Chinese have
heard of II and gone there to live, and
1t is the home of 5000 whites. The
plant that has given the island its
greatest prosperity should not be con-
founded with the cocoanut palm, which
is another thing entirely.
ANOTHER INSTANCE.
Thirty-five years ago poor Ger
man lad named Carlos Schmidt emf
grated to South America and settled
not far from Santos in Brazil. 1t was
not long before it occurred to him that
coffee was in large demand all over
the civilized world. and that very
good article was being raised in Era
zij He decided to give his life to cof-
the course of years he enlarged the
bounds of the few modest acres with
which he began business, until, today,
he owns what is said to be the Sec
ond largest coffee plantation in the
world. He has $500, 900 coffee trees in
bearing on 9.7S5 acres of land upon
which he gives constant employment
to 1900 laborers. His plantation, with
all the improvements in the way of
houses, stores, bakeries and so on, is
said to be worth over $3,000O00. The
few hundred dollars with which he
started to make his fortune in that
far-away land from which Canadians
have recently been assisted to return,
as they could not make a living there.
The truth is that they went to Brazil
without knowing the conditions before
them or how TO meet them. and they
failed of course. When men cannot
get along well in a new country 1t is
not always the fault of the country
OSTRICH CULTURE.
In the middle of this century the
| leading biologists who had given at
tention to the subject declared that the
domestication of the ostrich was an
Utopian idea. AS late as 1861 the we'll
known naturalist of France, NJ. 1sadore
Geoffroy Saint -Hilaire, declared that II
the domestication of the ostrich was
not absolutely impossible it would at
| least be q matter of extreme difficulty,
and, in a commercial sense, could never
| be practicable. In his opinion, their
young could not be raised in a state of
! captivity. If this were true, ii simply
meant the determination of the ostrich
| in a few decades more. The great de-
| mand for ostrich feathers was supplied
wholly from wild birds, whose plum
age was obtained only by sacrificing
the lives of the animals. The ostrich
was already extinct in about half OF
| his former habitat in Africa. A little
later, however, Dr. Gosse member
| of the Societe d'Acclimation of Paris,
wrote a pamphlet cOntroverting the
/ idea that the ostrich could not be do.
| mesticated, and about the same time
brood of ostriches was successfully
| reared in the city of Algiers.
This pamphlet and the news of the
| probable success of the experiment in
Algiers came into the possession of two
| farmers in Cape Colony, one of whom
| was Mr.. MacKinnear, who came to be
| known as the chief promoter of the
| domestiCation of ostriches in South
| Africa. In 1864 these two farmers
| placed two ostriches in an enclosure
and began the experiment. The fol-
| lowing year they had eighty ostriches
in captivity, including a large prOpor-
ton of young. This was the beginning
of ostrich farming, and these two far
| mers were benefactors of their race
| and of South Africa, because they had
| discovered a new industry, which was
| destined to play most important part
| In the commerce of a vast region. A
| constantly increasing area of South
| Africa that is not well adapted to any
other form of industry is being de-
voted to this profitable business. Os-
trich farming was greatly stimulated
| by the invention of Mr.. Douglas, an in
| cubator, which has proved a perfec.
/ SuCCpSS With tbn noa nf tl,;- 900.