Arizona republican., 1920-11-26

Fortunately, however, the bird is easily subdued by a very simple thing-a black stocking. All the keeper has to do Is to slip long black stocking over the head of an obstreperous ostrich, | and he immediately becomes as harm | less as a hen. Binder in this fashion | by a stocking, one of the prize ostriches at the farm even permits himself to be | harnessed to a light wagon, which he pulls in giant, ungainly strides around the path at the farm, greatly to the de- light of the tourists, who love to have themselves photographed in this amaz- ing rig.
 The Los Angeles ostrich farm is merely the city headquarters of a much larger farm which is situated
 far out in the valley away from the
 path of the travelling public. There
 hundreds of ostriches are kept in semi wild state and great acres of al- falfa, grown for their food. But as the city farm is an exact duplicate on a smaller scale, the tourist feels T that he has received his moneys worth
 when he pays his 50 cents to see how
 ostrich feathers are produced in Call
 fornia.
 At one end of the enclosure in which the few city birds are contained is a small incubator plant. Here a few of the huge speckled eggs, weighing any where from three and a half to five pounds, are always on exhibit. Vis- itors are permitted to handle them, and
 occasionally they are sold, for, con- , trary to the popular belief, ostrich eggs E are quite palatable. Ostrich hens lay . on an average of every other day dur ing the laying season. The eggs take 2 forty-two days to hatch in the in 1, cubator; the birds are never allowed : to do their own matching; and after the . chicks emerge from the shell they ars
 left in the incubator a couple of days z until they are dry. Then they art ! placed in the brood pens until they ar
 six or eight weeks old. It is at thi. . age that the ostrich performs his ia. |, nous silly trick of burying his heas !. in the sand, which Is not silly aftel H all because in such a position he look . . like a large bunch of dry grass. e When eight weeks old the babies ar, q transferred to runs enclosed by wir ' fence. They grow at the rate of foo if a month until they are six months old l. when they are supposed to hav = reached their full height Accordini
 to the keeper, the males and female
 look alike until they reach this age
 when the feathers of the male begil q to turn black and those of the femal r remain gray. This change of colo '. seems to be a clever scheme of Ma = ture's for protecting the young; for tn = feathers Of the female, who sits on tn v nest during the day, match the colo n of the sand, and those Of the male, wh guards the nest at night, cannot b ,e seen in the dark.
 "a Grown in Six Months
 At the age of six months, also, tn
 birds receive their first clipping, an E. thereafter are clipped at intervals ( 1t nine months. The feathers are neve lg plucked, but are clipped within tw le inches of the body. The short end (
 quill left heals over, falls out, and
 new one starts to grow in it's plac n- From 20 to 24 plumes are obtaine ,n from each wing of the ostrich. in ad Id dition to number of small feather he every one of which can be used con lg mercially. Often s150 worth of featf 0d CTS are taken off one bird at a clir ne ping.
 -s. The ostrich adults cannot be truste on in the same pen with their own of t. spring, for whom they cherish no a
 lection whatsoever. Usually in fac
 their impulse is to kill the young on, al on sight In the wild state they al ng tender parents, but the keeper e,
 plained that here at the farm, und
 the incubator system, they never hate ITS or raise their young, who appear I; IT. more strange and irritating to the n- than the chickens and sparrows tn it. roam about the ostrich enclosure
 - The breeding of ostriches for the