The landowner in question, realizing the novelty of his plan, proposes to cooperate with his tenants in getting selected seed. If the scheme is successful, it will merit a bulletin by the department of agriculture, to be widely distributed.
Florida Sharks That Nurse Their Young.
The curious piglike habits of the nurse sharks of Florida have been brought to the notice of the North Carolina Academy of Science by E. W. Gudger. A third of the circumference of Boca Grande Cay, a small coral sand island twenty miles west of Key West, is bounded by a gently sloping rock bottom, on which the water half a mile from the shore is not more than four or five feet deep.
On this bottom great numbers of the sharks gather in the sun, play, and possibly feed. With seldom less than a dozen visible, as many as thirty-three have been in view at one time.
They are broad, sluggish, so little afraid that a boat may touch their fins before they will move, and they lie piled together in a confused herd, like well-fed pigs in a barnyard. Sometimes three or four swim aimlessly about.
They are harmless, with small mouths filled with small pointed teeth, and, though they are vegetarians to some degree, their chief food seems to be the young oysters, clams, crabs, and various other crustaceans.
Ostrich Farming as a Business.
James H. Reece, of Joplin, Mo., who has been in California studying the “ins and outs” of the Pasadena ostrich farm, with a view of giving the business a try-out in this vicinity, has returned, and has considerable to say on the subject of the profitable raising of the big birds.
“Unless you have money to start with,” said he, “you shouldn’t attempt to go into ostrich farming in the United States for profit. Still, there are a number of ostrich farms in this country, and not all are failures. The first ostriches were brought here in 1862 from South Africa, and between that date and 1886, 120 birds were imported. We have now about 10,000 ostriches with us, nearly all of them American bred.”
“And,” he continued, “Arizona is the leading ostrich-farming section, though there are farms in California—the one at Pasadena being probably the best known of all of them—Texas, Arkansas, and Florida. Something like two millions of dollars is invested in the industry, not counting the value of the land. The business pays if the climate is all right and the birds receive proper care, for the ostrich, though tough, must be looked after carefully.