Omaha daily bee., 1908-11-29
100000 Ostriches Bring Their Owners $7OOOOOO Per An
Copyright. 1905. By Frank q carpentero

Copyright. 1905. by Frank q Carpenter1
- oRT ELIZABETH-Cspeoiai Cor
III respondence Of The Bee.eThia
is the chief ostrich feather port
rsTTrv Of the world The finest plumes
tH4ll4A which decorate the hats Of our
LII American beauties are raised in
Cape Colony. and more than $4,000 worth
Of them were sent from Port Elizabeth
TO the United States last year. The most Of
the ostrich feathers used by man are now
raised on the farms Of Cape Colony. Thers
is something like 10000 birds engaged IN
the business and they produced more than
100000 pounds Of feathers last year. Thoes
feathers sold for more than 300 900, bring
ing from $40 to $50 per pound
Big Feather Market.
The chief ostrich feather market "a Port
Elizabeth. The feathers are sent IN By
the farmers and country merchants ana
are sold here at auctions which are held
every two weeks. They are carefully packed
in boxes and sealed before shipping. and are
consigned to licensed agents who sort them
and sell on a commission Of ~ per cent.
The sorting is done at so much per pound.
The auction sales here are held IN what
Is known as the feather warehouse. This
covers more than an acre, and it consists OF
a great room filled with trestle-work tables.
Upon these tables the feathers are laid out
in lots, and the feather buyers from all
parts Of the world look over them and bid
on each lot. as It is put up for sale. Some
times 10000 worth of feathers are dis
played at one time. and the yearly auc-
lions bring in several millions After buy
ing, the feathers are resorted and then ship
nod IN Navv Work and T1pdan 80 -
great cities Of Europe. The greater part OF
the product goes to London, where there
are great feather auctions held several
times every year. Some of the very best
plumes, however. are exported direct to
the United States. the resorting and fin
ishing Of them being done by our mnliners
and dealers at home. The poorest feathers
go to Germany. where they are made up
into boas and plumes for dolls hats. The
London feathers are resorted before they
are sold. the auctions there handling twenty
or thirty tons every two months. M aver
age price brought by the Cape Colony
feathers last year was over SO per pound.
Scientific Ostrich Rearing.
The business of ostrich raising is fast
becoming a science. The government here
is interested in II. and It has all sorts
Va 0"a piObcNN Nnb AdTlntEH. lheI6
is a government veterinary surgeon at
Port Elizabeth, who spends all his time
studying ostrich diseases. There is an
ostrich breeding association. and this has
a stud book. in which the pedigrees OF
the most noted birds are laid down. There
are certain farmers who have so i'm
proved their stock that their ostrich
chicks win bring from $500 TO 81. 900
apiece, and certain cock birds will sell
for $4,000 or more. There is a man
named Evans whose ostriches stand very
high. He imported a Barbary cock some
twenty-five years ago and bred him TO
a fine native hen. Since then he has
steadily improved his breed. The ostrich
farmers pay great attention to the study
OF the feathers. watching the birds
which produce the best and crossing them
with others, trying to bring about a COM
bination which will yield the finest and
most valuable plumes. There are certain
localities which produce better feathers
than others. The Oudtshoorn feather.
for instance. reaches twenty-nine and
one-half inches In length. the Craft
Reinet measures about twenty-three
inches and the Middleburg is about TWEEN
ty-two. The latter feathers are a little
bit better than the oudtshoorn as TO Ger
tain points. but all are especially fine.
Kept Like Fine stock.
Awithin the last few years there has
been a great change in ostrich farming.
A generation or so ago nearly all our
feathers came from the wild birds. They
were hunted with dogs and guns aud were
often captured in pitfalls. Then along
about fifty years ago some young
ostriches were tanned by a South African
and ostrich breeding began. AS far back
as 1855 there we're only eighty tame
ostriches in the world. A few years later
the custom of Matching the eggs in in
cubators began, and in 1875 the number
of tame birds here had increased to over
5000. Still later came the great ostrich
boom. and In 1852 the feathers were sold
at $40 and upward a pound. and people
came from everywhere TO South Africa