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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1884)
THE WEST SHORE. 35 sales have increased 100 per cent in the last six years. Six years hence, at the same ratio, 1,500,000 cases will be sold. With proper care these enterprises ought annually to pay to labor $3,200,000, leaving fair margins to capital. This sum disbursed in a community would have a cur rency or debt-paying power of ten times the amount and add much to the general prosperity. G. H. Atkinson. THE OSTRICH AND ITS HABITS. A correspondent of the New York Times thus speaks oi Dr. Sketchley's ostrich farm near Anaheim, Gal.: The birds lay eggs every other day. Age does not affect them. I have seen a pair of birds which were eighty-two years old, and they were just as valuable for brpeding and feather raising as ever. Were they decrepit? You cjukl not tell the difference in any way between them and very much younger birds. I have known birds thirty years old, a pair, valued at $1,000. You can see the chances here. If the birds are in proper condition I expect that we shall have GOO chickens in a year. The difficulty in ostrich farming is in raising the chickens. They catch cold. But when they are over a month old they are all right Ostriches have no disease that I know of, and I have had eight years' experience with them. When a chicken is six months old the value of its feathers is about $10; when it is fourteen months old the value is between $20 and $30; and when the bird is be tween three and a half and four years old the value is about $250 annually. Sixteen years ago the business of ostrich farming was begun; now $40,000,000 are invested in it An ostrich is apparently about the most ill tempered bird in existence. They never acquire a fond ness for ony one. They have no particular preference ordinarily as for mating. They are always on the look out to kick some one, and if the kick has the intended effect it is pretty sure to be fatal. The blow is aimed forward and is accurate. For this reason the person who pulls the stocking over the ostrich's head at the time when the feathers are to be 'cut must be wary and experi enced. As Dr. Sketchley walked along by the corrals, of which there are about a baker's dozen, the ostriches, with a few exceptions, followed along with an evident desire to get a kick at him. The birds, when they found he was out of their reach, lay down in the dust of the corral and, rocking violently from side to side, beat their bodies with their heads with all their available force, which from the sound seemed to be considerable. It was such a sound as might come from a muffled drum. Having indulged in this outburst for a while, they stalked about with that peculiar gait, which seemed to be their property in com mon only with the camel or dromedary. A striking dif ference exists between the corraled and farmed ostriches and those running over the African deserts, inasmuch as the latter never fight The birds have to be hunted scientifically. Certain facts are known one being that the birds will always run in a semi-circle. First they will run with the wind, that they may use their wings to help them. After they get what the sailors call "a head wind," they go around the other way. They must be run down. On hnr? er.nr.ct "rind" ihcui. TLo 8ul trouble is to keep them in sight Thoy will run forty miles on a Btretch. If they ever got a breathing spell they will get away. The hunter starts out with a fresh horse. A Bushman boy rides another and loads one. As soon as it is seen which way the bird will run, the boy takes his cue and drives to where he thinks the hunter will need the fresh horse. In the meantime the ostrich singled out for the chase and the hunter are speeding along like the wind, the latter straining every nerve to keep in sight of the bird, and the bird making its most prodigious strides for freedom. A groat deal now de pends on the Bushman boy's judgment in having the fresh horse at the right place, that no time may bo wasted. It is seldom that the boy makes a mistake. The hunter leaps on the fresh horse and gains on the bird, which, growing tired, goes more -and more awkwardly. The hunter has only, when he catches it to rap it on the head with his hunting whip and the chase is over. There are really only two kinds of ostriches, the North African and South African birds. The males are black and the females drab. All are of one color, drab, until after they are two years old. RAILROAD NOTES. Garrison, on the Northern Pacific, will hereafter be known as Lloyd, and the Utah & Northern Junction, a mile distant, will be called Garrison. A bill is before the Legislature of British Columbia to incorporate the Okanngan & Shuswap Railway Com pany, to construct a road from Lake Okanogan, via Spallumcheen Valley, to Seven Mile (or Tonas) Lake. Trains on the Oregon & California roud now run to Medford, the new town in Rogue River Valley, and the line will soon bo completed to Ashland. How long the latter place will remain the terminus will depend upon the progress made in the Siskiyou tunnel. The con tractors were ordered to suspend work on the tunnel February 7, and the timo when it will bo resumed is not announced, though officials say the dolay is only tempo rary. The Oregon Pacific Railroad Company is displaying much energy at Yaquina Bay. The steamer Yaquina has sailed from New York with a large cargo of material, and after her arrival will run as a passenger and freight boat between Yaquina Boy and Snn Francisco. The tug Favorite has been purchased in San Francisoo for ser vice on the bar, and rails are being shipped from that city for completing the track. Everything indicates a vigorous prosecution of the work the coming season. The Yellowstone & Missouri River Navigation Com pany bos been incorporated to run a line of steamers between Glendive, Fort Buford, Poplar River, Bismarck and Pierre, connecting at Pierre with the Chicago k Northwestern Railroad.