220 
REPORT 
OSTRICH FARMING AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE AND 
IN AUSTRALIA. 
" My attention has been drawn to a recent number of 
The Australasian, containing an account of a meeting 
of the Acclimatisation Society, at which an allusion was 
made to the subject of ostrich farming in this country, 
and showing the deep interest which the present 
Governor at the Cape (Sir Henry Barkly) takes in the 
matter. As a resident in South Africa for eighteen 
years, in the districts lying north of the Orange River, 
where, in fact, the ostrich country begins, I beg to offer 
a few remarks for the general information of those who 
are not aware of the pecuniary advantages to be 
derived from the prosecution of this novel enterprise. 
" I was particularly impressed with the idea of such a 
scheme on my first visit to the Western District some 
four years since. Previous to my departure from 
Africa in 1867, the experiment had been tried in 
various localities in the Eastern Province, between 
Grahamstown, Algoa Bay, and Cape Town. Doctor 
Atherstone took a prominent part in impressing upon 
the farmers generally the possibility of such an enter- 
prise proving successful. The only outlay requisite 
(a far more serious one than Victorians imagine, from 
the scarcity of timber, and the expensive land trans- 
port) being the cost of enclosing a portion of their 
farms, the whole area of which is generally from three 
to 5,000 morgen, or six to 10,000 acres. Many years 
ago, the ostrich, and other kinds of large game, such as 
the giraffe, koodoo, gnu, blesbok, hartebeeste, &c, &c, 
were indigenous to that part of the country ; but the 
influx of settlers and ike consequent erection of 
