Show OSTRICH FARMING IN AFRICA A south out african account te count ol 01 1 A discovery rev I 1 other father 8 J the tha south african missionary now at st Xav lers was called upon recently by a reporter the newsman was waa pleas fortify greeted and invited to the revere re verena nj fathers father a Youw you bajit antto to know something about off ostrich farming arming do you lie he began well that grace graceful ful wonder of creation v out 1 soon boon be a thing of tile tha past had not tile tho savage doors boors found it more profitable to tome tame than to kill it yet even now they destroy tile the beautify beautiful bird in in the Kili Rala liari harl desert and in ili the region toward the zambezi A don boo r whom I 1 know knew killed the last wild lid ostrich on the site of the now famous kirn berly diamond mine mine tho the same sarno Boer in 1879 on the bablo land of the manti manta bola bela country killed si venty seventy five cock birds male mala ostriches for w hoso feat liera begot lie got pounds sterling and I 1 like ike all hunters still remains poor it was about 1870 that the alio first young ostrich chicks as big as young ar harm were v ere harbored hai borod and nursed in some hunter ers B wagons in tile tho far interior anil ani brought to the southern colonies these birds birdi were ero fed on indian corn caffria corn com millet shoots of young cactus anti an 1 their fruits after six six months tile alie chocolate colored birds stood as aa high as heavy turkeys arter after nine months thin first feathers feat liera began to fall when twill twelve ii months olit old the black cocks showed shoved themselves among tho gray liens hens and in tile the third year it a pair paid of them repa ena rated front from the troop for making a nest the doers boers nt at once saw ill alie possible gain they encamped lit tha breeding birds and baw nature antwork at work the five to six six feet high lock cock allowed ila hit glorious long black feather feathera feath pra nil ill over tile body except the bars baro limbs the pen of hist his wings ings was flossy floss v silver white and tho the palmy feathers athera te of lih in bundle tail had a rosy color for protecting hta his chocolate clio colored lien and her eighteen eggs in their sandy nest the tha bird would shiow fight and the birds birda took their first breakfast on the tha belks of two or three cheol eggs nl meanwhile ean while tile remainder of tile the birdi aird had been put in in the tha camp and as aa tile tha beautiful feathers began to show shiow the doers boers made mada nt at ohe one end of the tl 0 big camp a smaller one surrounded with w ith hedges of 0 thorn trees and other briers brier at tj alie to ex of this last camp a rough gate gata was wait made leaving an opening into a passage one ona yard wide and throe three yards long I 1 shut with an outside door on horses borses the doers drove the tha birds birda into the smaller camp from tho the larger then porting opening the alie door they spread food in the tha passage and as aa soon as two tire or three birds were in the passage the door was I 1 oc behind them it must bo noticed that those tremendous ostriches kick hick like cocks as they are not horses so BO the tha doers boers jumping into the passage passi fio behind the buds birds were out of the reach of their dreadful toes and while the greedy an imala were feeding he found all tins this time tima for plucking all ripe black feathers feathe m an and d rutting cutting out at the quill all the magn magnify ift cent whit feathers feather these latter are cut out half hak dried because they ore are then still in their first arst beauty while whon when completely ripe the bird spoils them while trying to pull them out in this way ostrich farming wasi waa found out and in m a few years farms ot of COO and more ostriches made a now new source of wealth for south africa too III much uc it of a good tiling thing can prove destruct ive and the ostrich manin mania prove so for foi the boers Doers la every boer dreamed of fit beco ung ing an ostrich farmer and as min coin was rare lie ho paid in stock the result bult was that the stock lost loat all its price 0 o too sheep and vic wool sil while the ostriches rose rapidly to fabulous prices alces of from COO to GOO pounds sterling a pair then feathers were high in price vi vary bryin ing with their color and kinds kinda from 10 a pound to and more for prime but soon the over stocked feather market ruined even the market an and d disease broke out among the tha birds themselves tho the result was tint that hund hundreds rids of doers boors having no more cattle had and losing even their birds had to sell off their farm far of which the price arne naturally sunk also allo so their temporary wealth soon became the source of great poverty ol of which a taw fair speculators profited by buying in farms and stock since then matters have hat 6 been settled stock block and wool wood trade and agriculture have resumed ostrich fanning farming is is going on in a moderate mo lerate find prosperous scale A direct trade in ostrich feathers between america and south africa ought to prove prova paying cincinnati sun interview |