Arizona republican., 1905-03-12

markable. They should indeed be- come the rule instead of the exception as time and experience bring us to better understanding of the bird. How ever, an average of ten chicks to each family" by no means unreasonable to expect, should satisfy the most avaricious.
 At six months of age the chick re- celves his first plucking. The feathers are coarse and narrow, bringing in the market but from $7 to $10 per bird. Eight months later comes his second "hop to the barber shop" at which time he rewards his owner with much better quality of plumage worth from $15 to $20. Another eight months and his feathers have reached maturity, the crop yielding from $20 to S25. And thus he continues for the remainder of his life every eight months giving up his quota to the wealth of his mas ter.
 Mention should have been made be- fore this that the male bird IS usually l the more valuable. In sales of mixed feather birds the cocks are generally listed $25 to $75 higher than the price of the hens. This, for one reason, is because of the superior quality of the feathers. It is by no means unusual to find one of these black monsters whose single pluckngs will yield $50 to $40. But 1t is the average feather birds previously referred to, those that make up the rank and file of the ranch, | that should be considered here. So let us view the proposition in decidedly l conservative light and see what can be accomplished under ordinary cir | cumstances.
 Let us start with eighty acres of land. ! .lE Col "a | food for ostriches obtainable in the valley. The subjects of acreage, fenc- 1 ing, feeding, help, etc, for the sake Of | brevity and clear understanding should | properly be treated under other head 1 ings. But we must have land to begin | with and as we are going to consider | the proposition during a period of five years 1t may be as well to mention l right here that the eighty acres will 1 have to be doubled long before that 1 time expires.
 1 Upon twenty acres of this alfalfa we
 will build twenty pens for ten pairs of 1 breeders-ten pairs make an excellent
 beginning-each pair having two pens l of an acre each. Here they are al- l ternated, allowing the alfalfa in one
 pen to grow while the birds eat down
 the other, at an annual cost of from s4 to s6 per head.
 l The advisability of plucking breed CTS is an open question. Their fea- | thers are not as good as those from | birds having no family ties, whose l limited instincts are troubled with notn- ing more strenuous than a life of ease 1 on large fields of clean and tender | green. It Is also claimed by some that
 taking the feathers from "housekeep-
 CTS" destroys their ambition for rais- l ing large families. Be all this as l 1 may, most farmers pluck their breed | CTS and the "unlucky thirteen" pair:
 that made the enormous contribution
 of two hundred and thirteen chicks go
 plucked for their pains so we vii
 pluck the beginners of our new farm
 Remembering that the plumage i
 slightly damaged through family care we will agree to sell the pluckings a
 an average of S16 each. Bear in min
 that we get a crop every eight months
 from all matured birds or an averag
 of one and one half pluckings pc
 year. This places our breeders outpu
 of feathers at an annual average O SPA which Is certainly as low as tn most conservative could wish. We vii
 call our breeders ''class A and as tn