THE CUBx\ REVIEW And Bulletin. 



23 



General Dotes 



THROUGH THE ISLAND. 



OSTRICH FARM IN MARIANAO. 



The Cuban Ostrich Company, [Messrs. 

 Pearson & Barbour, proprietors, are active- 

 ly at work at ^larianao. Both members of 

 the firm have been in the business in the 

 States in Arizona. 



The firm has a lease upon about 27 acres 

 of land at Marianao. Later they intend 

 to buy a large place in the country for a 

 main ranch, the place at Marianao to be 

 retained for their show farm and breeding 

 place. The farm is being divided into pens 

 and the birds paired off for breeding pur- 

 poses. One pair of the birds will have 

 four nests of eggs a year and each nest 

 will be of from twelve to eighteen eggs, 

 the eggs being laid one every other day. 

 The eggs will all be hatched in incubators 

 at a temperature of from 100 to 102 degrees. 

 About 75% of the eggs will hatch, which 

 is somewhat more than the birds will hatch 

 naturally. When the birds are six months 

 old the first plucking of the feathers takes 

 place, and after that time pluckings are 

 made every six months. The feathers of 

 the first plucking are not of as good a 

 quality as those of the other pluckings. 

 They are divided into several classes, de- 

 pending upon their size and quality. Best 

 feathers, practically perfect, will bring as 

 much as $170 a pound. Each bird has 

 48 feathers, and the total weight of these 

 feathers will be from one pound to a 

 pound and six ounces. Each plucking of 

 a bird will average somewhat over $100 

 in value. 



At the present time there are about forty 

 birds on the place, the majority of which 

 are young ones. There are also three 

 chicks of only about five or six weeks of 

 age. The birds were brought to' the Island 

 in two shipments, one from Nice, France, 



THE SANTIAGO OF TO-DAY. 



To-day it is as healthy as any city in 

 the tropics, although it is the hottest town 

 in Cuba, so that ordinary people can live here 

 in safety and comfort. The chief objects 

 of interest since the war are a model school- 

 house built by General Wood with funds 

 furnished by Henry L. Higginson of Bos- 

 ton, and a memorial tablet to commemorate 

 the massacre of the crew of the Steamer 

 Virginius in 1868. They are as attractive 

 to visitors as Hobson's prison and the old 

 opera house where Adelina Patti made her 

 debut. The model schoolhouse was intend- 

 ed as an educational object lesson to the 

 Cubans, but it has not accomplished its mis- 

 sion. Santiago is not an educational center 

 and there is very little to encourage a hope 

 of better things from the coming genera- 



and the other from Arizona. Both ship- 

 ments stood their journeys well, only a few 

 of the birds being slightly injured. There 

 are two varieties of birds, one from South 



Some occupants of the Ostrich Farm at Marianao. 



Una flnca de avestruces en Marianao, Cuba. Hay- 

 en esta finca unos 40 pajaros, la mayor parte 

 avestrucitos. 



Africa and the other from Nubia. The 

 former variety has the longer feather and 

 the latter the thicker and broader. It is 

 expected to cross the two species by care- 

 ful selection to produce a feather which 

 will be superior to that of either of the 

 present species, having the length of the 

 one and the width and thickness of the 

 other. 



The birds are fed upon "alfalfa," bran, 

 barley and occasionally given corn. The 

 main foods,' however, are the "alfalfa" and 

 bran. The rainy season which has to be 

 encountered, it is thought, will not present 

 any great difficulties. 



tion, although the first school in America 

 was established here in 1522, by order of 

 Pope Adrian VI. 



AN AMERICAN STORE NEEDED IN SANTIAGO 

 DE CUBA. 



Vice-Consul Wolcott thinks there's an 

 opening at Santiago de Cuba for an Amer- 

 ican tailor and an American haberdasher. 

 A good trade could be worked up, he thinks, 

 among the American naval officers at the 

 naval station in Guantanamo, who require 

 a large number of linen and duck uniforms. 

 There is nothing which might be termed 

 an up-to-date men's furnishing store and 

 a good line of American haberdashery would 

 sell here, without a doubt, among the Cubans 

 as well as the Americans. The native 

 tailors charge $1 gold for pressing a two- 

 piece suit. — Hartford Courant. 



