Chickens And Ostriches

All middle-aged people must reniember the great chicken wave that swt-pt over the land some twenty-five years ago. About eighteen millions of people simultaueously conceived the idea thatthey could tuakerapidand certain fortunes by raising chickens. The immediate cause of this delusion was the introductiou of a new style of chieken known as the Shanghai, lt was claimed that a Shanghai hen would lav twice as inany eggs iii a given time as any other hen had ever been known to lay; that these eggs would be rauch larger than ordinary hen's eggs, and that a Shanghai Spring chicken vrhen ready for the table would be aboutthe samesize as a full-grown turkey. Scores of people had tried to cultivate the old-fashioned chickens without ever succeeding in makmg any money, but it was clear that the Shanghai was a very different sort of bird, and that a judicious Shanghai culturist could grow rich even in the neighborhood of a permanent colored cam p-meeting. Books treating of the chicken question and filled with the most convincing figures flooded the market. The writers showed that the flrst cost of a dozen Shanghai eggs would be, say, 50 cents. These when hatched by an ordinary hen would yield an average quantity of ten hens and two cocks. Èach hen on reaching maturity would begin to lay eggs at the rate of 865 per year. the ñrst ten hens thus yieldhig 3,650 eggs annually. These eggs would aroduce in round numbers 3,000 hens, so that at the end of the second year ;he chicken farmer would be in the receipt of over 3,000 daily eggs, or ,095,000 eggs annually. Were he to sell these eggs for 4 cents each, he irould have ayearly revenue of nearly &45.000 for eggs alone. lie would, moreover, have, after two years of chicken culture, a large qwantity of middle-aged hens. which could be sold o boarding-house keepers for more han the cost of feeding 3,000' active ayer. Thus, at a lirst cost of 50 cents, the investor could soon secure a erruinent income of $45,000 anmially. íothing ooukl be inore delighli'ul -ban these figures, but they lured untold numbers of Americans to ruin. It was found that the Shanghai was a dreadful bird, and would lay eggs only at rare intervals and in small 'jiiantities. The eggs in nine cases out of ten hatched cocks instead of hens, and experience proved that the Shangïai was tough and tasteless. To these vices the wretched fowl added that of unparalleled voracity, and it was found that a pair of Shanghai chickens would eat more hay and oats in the course of a year tlian a pair of liorses. There carne a time when a deeeived and outraged people rose in ita might and massacred every Shanghai in the country, and thisted for the blood of the man wlio had writteñ the infamously ïalse bouks on chicken culture. And now.undeterred by the niemory of the great chicken cataclysni, certain unprincipled men are making an effort to inveigle the innocent American farmers into cultivating a breed much larger and f ar worse than the Shanghai. A Calif ornian, whose name is for obvious reasons withheld, has made the pretended discovery that the sure roaüd to fortune lies through the cultivation of ostriches. It is true that ostriches are r.ither costly, since agood pair cannot be landed in this country for less than $500, but with that one pair a man can soon make himself a millionaire An ostrich hen will lay 80 eggs per annum, f rom which can be hatched 80 young ostriches. Of these fully 70 will be hens, and each one of them will in its turn producé 80 ostrich cliickens annualiy. In two years the ostrich breeder will ltiive 0,312 os triches- or, sa.y, 6,300, for perhaps the cat will succeed in killing a dozen These birds will be worth $1,575,000 To this must be added the value of a year's erop of feathers, which, according tothe Californiau, will amount to $630,000 more. At the end of two years the ostrich farmer will thus be worth $2,206,000, af ter deducting, as has been already said, 12 birds as a possible result of cat depredaiions. As for the cost of keeping oslriches, it is practically nothing, if the farmer resides in a región where gravel is plenty, and in any event must be ver small, when we remember how cheaplj scrap iron, scrap tin, and Vroken bottles, suitable for ostrich food, can be bought. The young ostriches do nol need to be kept in a coop, but shouk be chained by the leg to a telegraph post, as is the cii3tom in Central Al'rica, where they are ascommonaschickens are with us. A fair profit couk also be made by selling the eggs at tht market price of $200 per dozen, bul this need not be dwelt upon, as il would be much more profltable to sell the superfluous birds after having reaped three or four crops of feathers Of course these calculations are f alse and are worth no more than the calculations of the Shanghai conspirators In all probability, however, the innocent public will greedily devour them and plunge into ostrich farm ing. In a short time the land will be musical with the morning song of the ostrich, and we shall be able to stuff our mattresses with ostrich feathers. The entl will, of course, be the ruin of the confiding public, for the ostrich will refuse to lay eggs, will devour every portable article within its reach, and will ünally be shot by the indignan t farmer and sold at a nominal price to the keepers of railway eating-houses.