26 The Australasian Scientific Magazine . [August i, 1885. 
distinction as the first ostrich artificially hatched in America. [This state- 
ment seems to be incorrect, as ostriches were hatched by incubator on Mr. 
George Beaumont’s ostrich farm at Merlo on the 21st of January, 1881, 
two years and a half previous]. Our attention was next turned to the 
paddocks and farms of the Anaheim ranche. Leaving the front door 
facing east, we turned south, and saw before us an enclosure of four acres 
in the form of an L, made by a post and board fence only four and a half 
feet high, of three inch thick and twelve inch wide red wood boards, well 
nailed on, and sound. A kick from an irritated ostrich would break an 
ordinary fence board into splinters. The parallelograms making the L are 
divided into twelve paddocks, in which the stock of twenty-one ostriches — 
eleven hens and ten cocks — are placed. The paddocks are bare and sandy, 
but surrounding the breeding grounds is an excellent growth of alfalfa , 
turnips, cabbages, onions, maize, and beets, all of which have been planted 
and grown since March 25th, and in time for the voracious chickens which 
are expected to rally round their parents in all summer campaign in the 
fifty-four acres of green food provided for them. In close proximity to the 
paddocks is an Artesian well, 300 feet deep, which discharges four feet 
above the surface 12,000 gallons of water each hour, sufficient to irrigate in 
this locality from 200 acres to 300 acres of land planted to ordinary crops 
and with average rainfalls. The entire ostrich farm is one mile square of 
640 acres, and a level plain. This enterprise is fairly pronounced a 
success, as the company has more orders for birds than it can promise to 
fill.” 
Thus, it will be seen, that with a moderate outlay of capital, and in a 
comparatively small space of acreage, a real “ Eldorado ” can be found by 
ordinary intelligence, perseverance, and labour, light and pleasant in com- 
parison to that required in less profitable pursuits. The settlement of 
Anaheim was founded, I believe, in 1857, and almost exclusively by thrifty 
Germans. Most of the land was sub-divided into twenty-five-acre lots, a 
town site with an equal number of building lots being reserved as the 
centre. Each colonist was entitled to a 20-acre field and a town lot. An 
irrigating ditch, carrying water from the Santa Ana River, five miles distant 
was constructed with cross ditches, the borders being planted with trees 
This section is about to become one of the greatest wine-producing districts 
of the United States, and this year promises a grape crop of unprecedented 
quantity and quality. 
Again from a Texas paper, San Antonio , October 2nd, 1883, I take a 
notice of the Harris County Ostrich Farm : — “ Since the Government of 
the United States, through Consular correspondence, drew attention to 
this prospective interest to domestic trade, an extensive exploration of 
localities for ostrich raising has been made by agents on behalf of 
individuals and combinations of moneyed men in Europe, who have 
invested in the purchase of southern and south-western lands. Southern 
Texas appears to be the most promising field (coastwards) of operations, and 
an Anglo-American Company is about to locate an ostrich farm in Harris 
County, of which Houston is a thriving city. Divers railway lines, embrac- 
ing up to 6000 miles of land transportation, are in connection with the 
Missouri, Pacific, the Wabash, and the St. Louis, and the Pacific Railway 
Company, which in part passes through Harris and the adjoining counties. 
The Brazilian Government offering peculiar inducements by land grants to 
this branch of stock raising, and m view of the immense profits realised 
by African ostrich breeders in Natal, Cape Colonies, and Algeria, it was a 
wise and timely movement. Should this enterprise in Southern Texas be 
