OSTRICH-FARMING: ITS ORIGIN AND PROSPECTS

OSTRICH-FARMING: ITS ORIGIN AND PROSPECTS
.
IN treating of Ostrich-farming it is essential in bear in

Dlind what a short time has elapsed since the first
domestication of the wild bird, which we can only date

back about fourteen years j as, althougll previous to this



a few Ostriches had been kept in zoological gardens
,
and in parks, like that of the late Sir Walter Currie, at

Oatlands Park, Grahamstown, we have not heard that

anyone had them breeding in a tame state. So that,
although we should have to go back a long period to

find when the first tamed Ostrich was kept, the domestication

of Ostriches for the purpose of farming them

for" the sake of their plumage must be taken to date

from 1867.(روغن شترمرغ) .AB to who should bear the palm for being

the first to have succeeded in domesticating the Ostrich
,
Le., to have had a nest from tamed birds, and to have

reared their chicks in a tame state, it may be hard

to decide. We believe some challenge our claim

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 OSTRICH-FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA.:
whether justly or not, we cannot say; at any rate, we

believe 110 one disputes that we were the first to make it

our sole occupation, and to bring it before the world

as the extraordinarily lucrative and great industry it bas

now become-- an industry in which in the Cape Colony

alone there is not less than £8,000,000 of capital

employed, and with an export of feathers for last

year of 163,065 Ibs. weight, valued at £883,632, being

equal to £5 8s. 4d. per lb., the great mass of which

was from tame birds. It seems almost unaccountable

that for over forty years after the landing of the British

settlers in the colony such a mine of wealth should have

lain at their doors, within almost daily sight of them, as

at that ~ime the wild bird was in abundance throughout

Albany, and light up to the Zambesi, and many of the

most adventurous of the settlers made an occupation of

hunting the birds and exporting the feathers, and constantly

came upon broods of young birds; or even

later on, when the birds were destroyed and hunted into

more inland parts, and Grahamstown became the main

centre from which the traders fitted out and returned to

sell their feathers, and the inhabitants constantly saw

feathers sold for nearly their weight in gold, yet the

idea never struck tlJem of domesticating the bird, and

reaping a half-yearly crop of feathers, instead of shooting

it for a single crop(روغن شترمرغ)
.
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ITS ORIGIN AND PROSPECTS. 3

The cOllsideration of this should aot as a gr~at

stimulus to every young man to keep his eyes open for

other mines of wealth, which no doubt lie around us ill



this, as yet, little-developed land. But anyone who

will discover these must rely entirely on himself, and

must not be deterred by any amount of sneers and

ridicule. Many a time at first we were told we were

mad, and should leave it alone; that it would never

pay j tllat the birds were naturally of so timid a nature
,
they would ne"er breed in confinement; or if they ever

did make a nest, that it was their nature to break nIl

theil". eggs if anyone went near it; and that even if all

other difficulties were overcome, the feather grown in a

tame state would not curl, and would be of little value
.
This latter was extensively belieYed, even by .the

dealers ill feathers, and for some years a great prejudice

was maintained against tame feathers. As this

has quite died out now, it is hard to account for it
,
and only shows how strong prejudice is against anything

new.
The Fl"ench have made great efforts to introduce

Ostrich-farming in AIgiersJ but it does not seem to have

taken muoh root there. Birds are also, to a small

degree, kept in a tame state in Egypt. But South

Africa bas become, and is likely to remain, the great

seat of the industry


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 OSTRWH-FAR:MING IN SOUTH AFRICA

The Melboume Acc1imatisation Society imported

some into Australia about eight years ago, but they have

only slightly increased, and the experiment as yet can

hardly be considered a success. A few other small lots

have also been introduced into some of the other

Australian colonies.
Last year a shipment of over a hundred birds took

place from Cape Town to Buenos Ayres
.
The North African Ostrich is considered to give a

more valuable feather than the South African" and a few

years ago two pairs of birds were imported at Port

Elizabeth from Barbary(صابون شترمرغ)
.
For some years not only farmer8~ but experienced

business men" were always prognosticating that the

feather market would collapse with the increase of the

Ostrich; but the reverse has been the case. Fourteen

years ago the export of feathers from the Cape was

only valued at £70,000, entirely from wild birds, and

yet prices were no higher than they are now, and the

:fluctuations of price have not been so great as in most

other staple raw productions. One of its great safeguards

is, that it is part of the Court dress; and as long

as it is so it will always be fashionable; and the vested

interests, not only of the growers, but, what is more

important, of wealthy men in Europe, in the shape of

the manufacturers of the curled and dressed feather

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