6 
lucerne pasturage supplemented by other artificial feeding. Even under 
these conditions many farmers, for the reasons mentioned below, find it 
advantageous to allow the quills three months in which to fully ripen, thus 
introducing a nine month system. 
It is of interest to ostrich farmers in South Africa to know that the 
eight month system is that followed on the ostrich farms in the United 
States and in New Zealand. 
2. The Yearly System.—On the Karoo farms, where the elevation is 
3,000 or 4,000 feet or more, the differences in temperature between sum- 
mer and winter are considerable, and it is found that feather growth does 
not proceed so freely during the colder weather when food is not plentiful. 
Here it is possible to allow the stumps of the second or subsequent crops 
of feathers to remain in the sockets for as long as from four to six months 
without any of the new growth beginning to show itself. By doing this, 
however, only one crop of feathers is secured annually. This single crop 
is usually clipped about the commencement of the breeding season, which 
is generally in May or June, and the farmer endeavours to have the 
feathers of all his birds ripe about the same time. 
C.—CoMmPaRISON OF THE Ergut Monro AND THE YEARLY SySsTEMs. 
It is manifest that the financial proceeds from ostrich farming will 
differ greatly according as only one crop of feathers is obtained yearly or 
three crops in two years, as in the eight month system. As already shown, 
however, the system which is followed is not left wholly to the discretion 
of the farmer; he is largely obliged by the nature of the conditions to fol- 
low one or the other. It remains to be seen what is the influence upon 
the feather producing powers of the bird according as one system or the 
other is followed, for 1t can scarcely be expected that a bird will produce 
the same quality of feathers three times in two years as once each year. 
As a matter of experience the more observant farmers find that they are 
more likely ta secure a better crop of feathers by clipping only once a year 
than by forcing the birds to produce a crop every eight months, and many 
would prefer to follow the first system were it practicable, that is, could 
the quills be kept: back. Where an eight months’ crop is regularly ex- 
pected it is found that the feathers produced begin to deteriorate after 
four or five years; the forced production seems to partially exhaust the 
ostrich as regards quality of feather growth, and the best farmers find it 
necessary to get rid of their feather birds after this age. On the other 
hand a bird producing only one crop annually will continue to give 
feathers of the same quality for a very long period, cases being known 
where this continued from fifteen to twenty years. The difference of 
returns from superior feathers as compared with inferior is so great that 
to-day quality is a much more important consideration than quantity. 
Many matters, therefore, have to be taken into account by the farmer 
before deciding which system to adopt, where in certain intermediate dis- 
tricts both courses are possible. The factors discussed below have some 
bearing upon the question as to how far the quilling interval can be ac- 
celerated or retarded and thereby one system or another followed at 
choice. 
D.—ConpiTion oF Brrp AND QUILLING. 
The domesticated ostrich is a much more sensitive creature than would 
be expected and varies greatly in its state of health, particularly during 
the first two years. This variation is dependent largely upon the quantity 
and quality of its food, its freedom or otherwise from parasites, and the 
