A DEAL IN OSTRICHES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10008, 2 April 1910, Page 4

A DEAL IN OSTRICHES.

The first sale of New South Wales bred ostriches has just been cotn- , pleted. The parties to the transaction were the Hawkesbury Agricultural College and Mr F. A. H. Cork, • of Castlereagh, on the Nepean ' River. The latter, having decided i to relinquish dairying in favour of feather-growing, arranged to purchase every bird that could be spared from the College flock, and as a result he will begin operations with 24 ostriches, There are two or three other ostrich farms in the State, but | Mr Cork will start with a larger stock than did any of the others. He was encouraged to take up this industry by the excellent results that have heen obtained at the college. There are numbers of others in New South Wales who would

readily embark in the same linq, but the bar has been the difficulty, if not actual impossibility, ot securing foundation stock. As an ostrich does not breed until three years-old; raising a flock is rather a slow process, and those who have the birds will not part with them. They know that there is money in them. South Africans, too, recognise a possible serious competitor in Australia, and to prevent breeding stock going there to build up the infant industry, the Gove_:,.nerit of that part of the British E ..pire some time ago passed a law making it a criminal offence to export either ostriches or their eggs.