AFRICAN OSTRICH CENSUS.

Lake County Press, Issue 2138, 4 October 1906, Page 7

AFRICAN OSTRICH CENSUS.

The last ostrich sensus in South Africa sho\wd 1 r>7 ,*.»T*> birds in the colony. There are two sorts of ostrich farming—the one grazing them on fields under irrigation, when live birds to the aero can I>.- kept, and the other letting them find their own food in large camps up to 0.000 acres, and requiring from 10 lo ~0 acres to the bird. In the first case the great drawback is the great cost of land laid down with lucern and under permanent irrigation, it running from Clo to £IOO per acre. In the second case the drawback is the greater loss of birds from accidents and getting lost, and the cost of feeding (hem in severe droughts. Oudlshorn is the great ostrich centre; /or the irrigation method. - quarter of all the birds being found there. The other method is mninl.v carried on on the coast west of East London and up the large river valleys. The chick feathers usually are pulled when the bird is eight months old, then six and a half months after that the primary feathers are CUt, and the (ails, blacks and drabs. pulled. This gives nearly three pluckings in two years. Ilirris should average lib. to I In. •">"/. <»f feathers a plucking, or about ljlb. a year.