The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-10-15

progress has thus been effected, for
few women can resist the enviouS
fascination that follows the appearance
of a magnificent feather boa beneath
their fascinating countenances. Even
the plainest of them will be greatly
improved, while the good looking ones
will become divine. Feather sales the
first day ought to average with six
competent salesladies, not particularly
struck on themselves, four thousand
dollars. The half of this, less five per
cent for help, is margin for the for
tunate Washington ostrich farmer.
To represent all ages of ostrich life
as they do in California in one show,
buy a few ostrich chicks at the regu-
lar price here, which is $25 apiece;
and few fresh ostrich eggs at six
dollars each. This will give the tour
list a good idea of the industry, for all
ages of ostrich life will be in evidence,
while the vast accumulation OF os-
trich feathers in the salesrOom Will
exhibit the remarkable fecund1ty OF
the ostrich in producing ostrich feath-
ers. To exhibit melancholy but
truthful past have number OF STUFFED
little ostriches in the salesroom-these
are for sale in California at five dol
lars each. Send to all the newspapers
and theatrical people free passes to
see the show. Get all the papers
of the county in the next few days
and read the laudatory reports OF the
new Washington ostrich farm. Ar
range with the bank to have a special
messenger sent every day to the farm,
properly armed, with sacks for the
money. While all this gives a roseate
view of the enterprise, yet it is posi-
BILE in California and Arizona and
hardly in Washington. This Is the
opinion of the California ostrich farm
ers, who have read with establishment
the founding of an ostrich farm at
Seattle, and the absurd statements
printed in the Seattle and Spokane
press regarding the value of this Curl
Gus pathological stock. 1t is there
gravely asserted that ostriches are
worth two thousand dollars each; that
young chicks are valued at thousand,
eggs at two hundred and twenty five
dollars and that the annual product of
an ostrich in feather value is a pound
and a half at two hundred and fifty
dollars a pound, all of which is really
exaggerated, but, like all fictions, has
some foundation in fact. Ostriches in
California, the ideal American state
for the ostrich culture, yield about
forty dollars worth of feathers each
every year, twenty-five feathers of de-
cent size and the rest scrub feathers,
or tail feathers, used for the stuffing
of the superior ones; for the feather
of commerce is always composed of
several, the top one of good quality,
but the rest all hens or chickens
feathers and of little value. The Brit
ish ostrich feather market fixes the
value of ostrich crude feathers, and
the values range there from few shil-
lings to a hundred dollars a pound
for the largest and best.
Ostriches have been cultivated in
California for twenty-six years and
even now with all that record there
are only three ostrich farms in the
state and these are all show institu-
lions or menageries, where the COM
fort and convenience of the tourist is
sought after more than those of the
ostriches. There is truly one breeding
ostrich farm in California and that's
all. This is connected with a show
farm and the birds are RATED about
for the purpose of permitting them to
enjoy needed exercise, which affects
the quality of the feathers, and who
could expect a domesticated ostrich
to stand all day in a corral, like a
policeman, and at the same time raise
those delightful creations that were
the envy of royalty and aristocracy
from time immemorial?