THE AGRICULTURAL 



JOURNAL. 



269 



Eland Breeding, 



A PROFITA] 



MR. C. A. EENBOW, writing to the 

 Agricultural Gazette of New South 

 Wales, strongly recommends the breeding 

 of eland in the dronght-aflBicted portions 

 of Australia as a pastoral industry. Much 

 of Mr. Benbow's lengthy article is devoted 

 to showing the similarity of the con- 

 ditions, especially in plant life, of South 

 Africa to those of Australia. The follow- 

 ing is a condensation of the article :— 



. . . There are apparently only two 

 courses to resort to in dealing with this 

 vast inland scrubby and dry belt. The 

 scrub cannot be killed, then try to use it 

 or leave it alone ; sink no more money 

 trying to force the land to accom- 

 modate that for which nature has not 

 fitted it, either as to vegetation or by its 

 rainfall. 



Uoiv use it putting an animal on 



the scrub lands that will eat it, whose 

 natural food it is, that will fatten on it, 

 that requires not much water, and can 

 travel for what it wants. Can such an 

 animal be found ? 



But befoi'e anything more is written it 

 would be as well to quote from an Eng- 

 lish paper, the Spectator, which, under 

 the heading of " Wanted a New Meat," 

 says the following :— " The lack of variety 

 in those meats which, whether flesh or 

 fowl, must always form the groundwork 

 and basis of an English bill-of-fare, is a 

 want keenly felt, but most difficult of 

 remedy. To judge from the list of fresh 

 food which the improved transport of the 

 last few years has made available for the 

 London dinner table, a natural inference 

 would be chat, so far as novelty has been 

 studied, we had made provision, not for 

 man, as humanized by schools of cookery, 

 but for a race of fruit-eating apes. We 

 have a dozen new fruits, shaddocks limes, 

 custard apples, bananas, pines, Italian figs, 

 pomegranates, liches, ground nuts, gourds, 

 water-melons, and avocado peaj's. But 

 among the thousands of tons of foreign 

 game imported yearly, there is hardly a 

 beast or bird which may not be had' in 

 better quality and condition at laome, 

 except the prairie-bird and the quail ; for 

 those canvas-backed ducks which escape 



INDUSTRY. 



the keen search of the New York dealers' 

 and find their way across the atlantic 

 alight only on the tables of city companies 

 and millionaires, like the Caladrusof old, 

 that ap2)eared only at the death of kings. 

 Yet there are probably twenty people in 

 this country who have eaten canvas- 

 backed ducks for one who has ever tasted 

 swan, or rather cygnet, the finest water 

 fowl for the table, alike in size and 

 flavour, a bird easy to rear, most prolific, 

 rivalling even the breast of a teal, without 

 the fatal drawback of that excellent little 

 bird, that no one has ever been able to 

 get enough of it. Even now, though so 

 neglected by the world, swans may be had 

 from the Norwich Swan Pit for £2 each. 

 They weigh some 161bs., and with them 

 is forwarded an ancient receipt for cook- 

 ing them, ' dene into rhyme by a person 

 of quality.' 



" Another ' fowl ' which was once re- 

 served for the table of kings, and is now 

 hardly thought good enough for aldermen, 

 is the peacock. What roast swan is to 

 roast goose, such is roast peacock to roast 

 turkey. Many owners of country houses 

 who keep peacocks and let them run wild 

 and nest in their woods and shrubberies 

 take little trouble either to fatten or cook 

 the pea chickens. If they did they would 

 perhaps take more pains to rear these 

 birds for the table. The meat is very 

 white, atid of exceedingly fine and close 

 grain, and has the true game flavour and 

 none of the stringiness of the common 

 turkey. The American wild turkey is, 

 however, an even finer bird for the table 

 than the peacock. Those which appear 

 in the poulterers' shops of London 

 generally arrive in such bad condition 

 from careless packing and refrigerating 

 that they are inferior to the domestic 

 bird. But when allowed to run wild and 

 nest in P]nglish woods, as is done on some 

 estates, on its merits, and apart from any 

 tricks of cookery, it is, perhaps, the very 

 best land bird that is available for food. 

 The game flavour is not too pronounced, 

 but gives a character to the whole which 

 is altogether absent in the tame black 

 turkey of the farmyard. 



