March l, i860.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



OSTRICH BREEDING. 377 



farming in the district, by which I am convinced, from my own short ex- 

 perience, enormous profits may be realized. Towards the close of last 

 year, I purchased seventeen young ostriches of three or four months 

 old. I placed them in an enclosure of 300 acres in extent, in which 

 they had a free run. They have been kept there ever since, and have 

 subsisted entirely upon the herbage of the enclosure, except an 

 occasional feed of grain when driven up to the house for the inspection 

 of visitors. I had at the same time other stock within the enclosure, 

 and the opinion I have formed with reference to the extent of ground 

 requisite for their grazing is that thirty-five birds can be carried year in 

 and year out upon 300 acres of good grazing land — I mean land rather 

 superior to the common run. At the end of last April I had the wings 

 of the birds plucked, where the feathers of commerce grow. In con- 

 sequence of the youth of the birds, the feathers then obtained were 

 valueless. I now find, by recent examination, that the birds will be 

 fit to pluck again at the end of the present month, verifying the state- 

 ment made at the last Swellendam Show by one of its members, who 

 was, like myself, experimenting in this novel description of farming, 

 that he obtained feathers fully grown from his ostriches every six 

 months. My ostriches are so tame that they allow themselves to be 

 handled and their plumage minutely examined. Being desirous of 

 ascertaining the opinion of those versed in the trade, as to the com- 

 mercial value of the feathers, I have had the birds examined by several, 

 and the general opinion is that the largest feathers, of which there are 

 twenty-four on the wing of each male bird, are worth 25/. per lb., and 

 that the yield of the whole plucking, the majority of the -birds being 

 males, will not fall short of 10/. each upon the average. I think the 

 statement made at the Swellendam Agricultural Show sets the value of 

 each half-yearly plucking at 12?. 10s. per bird, and this, I have no 

 doubt, will be the average of mine when they arrive at maturity, accord- 

 ing to the present market value of feathers. The original cost of the 

 young birds was about 5/. each." 



This hitherto neglected district (Colesberg), which, with the adjoining 

 Free State, is pre-eminently the ostrich country, is likely to eclipse the 

 gold-mines of Australia, California, and British Columbia, and landed 

 proprietors may congratulate themselves in possessing the veritable El 

 Dorado of the colony. In the last Cape papers it is stated that only a 

 few small parcels of ostrich feathers had come to hand during the month, 

 and for those offered at public auction competition had been very keen. 

 All descriptions realized extreme prices, the best being sold as high as 

 27/. 10s. to 30/. 10s. per lb. In 1863 there was imported into the 

 United Kingdom, chiefly from South Africa, Morocco, and France,. 

 28,500 lbs. of ostrich feathers, valued zt 153,059/. 



