4 OSTRKJH- FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA ; 



The Melbourne Acclimatisation Society imported 

 some into Australia about eight years ago, but they have 

 only slightly increased, and the experiment as 3^et can 

 hardly be considered a success. A few other small lots 

 have also been introduced into some of the other 

 Australian colonies. 



Last year a shipment of o^'er a hundred birds took 

 place from Cape Town to Buenos Ayres. 



The North African Ostrich is considered to give a 

 more valuable feather than the South African, and a few 

 years ago two pairs of birds were imported at Port 

 Elizabeth from Barbary. 



For some years not only farmers,, but experienced 

 business men, were always prognosticating that the 

 feather market would collapse with the increase of the 

 Ostrich ; but the reverse has been the case. Fourteen 

 years ago the export of feathers from the Cape was 

 only valued at £70,000, entirely from wild birds, and 

 3'et prices were no higher than they are now, and the 

 fluctuations of price have not been so great as in most 

 other staple raw productions. One of its great safe- 

 guards is, that it is part of the Court dress ; and as long 

 as it is so it will always be fashionable ; and the vested 

 interests, not only of the growers, but, what is more 

 important, of wealthy men in Eui'ope, in the shape of 

 the manufacturers of the curled and dressed feather, 



