Vo/. /. 



JWo-dember, 1901, 



J^cll 



YOUNG OSTRICHES. 



California. Ostrich Farm (See Sept. No.)- 



The most interesting thing about the juvenile ostriches is the rapidity of 

 their growth; they emerge from their ostrich shells the size of full grown 

 ducks and begin to eat the green alfalfa. This alone must be their diet 

 for several months, for dry food has been found to be very injurious to 

 young ostriches. In Africa many thousand of the ostrich young perish 

 from a disease termed "yellow-liver," but this pest has not so far affected 

 the American ostriches. Given plenty of grass and water they increase 

 in height at the marvelous rate of twelve inches a month, so that in six 

 months they are nearly as tall as their parents, but by no means so mus- 

 cular. While very young they are nightly housed in what are called 

 brooders, consisting of long boxes about 30 inches wide and high and eight 

 feet long; in the morning after sunrise they are turned out upon the alfalfa 

 and remain until sundown. Thus cared for and protected the mortality 

 among the ostrich young in California has not exceeded ten per cent; in 

 Arizona they have not so far made as good a showing. Each ostrich 

 chick the moment it is hatched is worth twenty -five dollars; time only in- 

 creases this value, so that at two years of age a pair would cost $250, but 

 who shall figure on the exact value of a prolific pair of adult ostriches 

 hatching thirty-five chicks in one year, each chick being worth $25? 



E. H. Rydall, Los Angeles, Cal. 



