ifficulty was in
finding proper food for the birds. We tried them with various kinds of
grasses, and we studied as well as we could the habits of the wild bird
at home. We found that they needed a certain quantity of alkalies, and
they subsisted largely upon the sweet grasses, wherever they could find
them. The grass called lucerne seems the best adapted to them, and you
will find it grown on all ostrich farms for the special purpose of
feeding the birds.

"We have got the business down so fine now that we understand all the
various processes of breeding, rearing, herding, feeding, plucking, and
sorting. We buy and sell ostriches just as we do sheep. We fence in our
flocks, stable them, grow crops for them, study their habits, and cut
their feathers as matters of business. We don't send the eggs to market
along with our butter and cheese, as they are altogether too dear for
consumption. It is true that an ostrich egg will make a meal for three
or four persons; but at five dollars an egg, which is the usual price,
the meal would be a dear one.

"In fact, the eggs are so precious," he continued, "that we don't allow
them to be hatched out by the birds. For fear of accidents, as soon as
the eggs have been laid they are taken from the nests and placed in a
patent incubator to be hatched out. The incubator makes fewer mistakes
than the parent ostriches do. That is to say, if you entrust a given
number of eggs to the birds to be hatched out in the natural way, and
place the same number in an incubator, you will get a considerably
larger proportion of chicks from the latter than from the former.

"The business of ostrich farming," Mr. Shaffner went on to say, "is
spread over the colony from the near neighborhood of Cape Town to the
eastern frontier, and from Albany to the Orange River. Ostrich farms
were scattered at no great distances apart, and some of the proprietors
had a high reputation for their success. He said it must not be
understood that ostrich farming was the great industry of the country;
on the contrary, the product of wool was far greater in value than that
of feathers, and the ostriches were to the sheep as one is to a
thousand."

Harry asked if the birds were allowed to run at large, or were kept
constantly in enclosures.

"Both plans are followed," said Mr. Shaffner, "and some of the farmers
allow their flocks to run at large, feeding them once a day on grain,
for which they must come to the home stabl