OSTRICH FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA (1881)

Publisher's green cloth binding with gilt titles on spine.

viii + 251pp. + [4]pp. publisher's catalogue. Fold-out map at front + 10 plates (all present).

Binding tight. Contents clean. Former owner's name and address, dated 1882, in pencil on front endpaper.

'A practical work on ostrich farming. The author, who was a well-known South African politician and a member of Sir Gordon Sprigg's Cabinet of 1902, was probably the first man in Africa to occupy himself with ostrich breeding as his sole business. He invented an incubator, which he patented, and by means of his energy brought the industry into prominence. At this period a capital of £8,000,000 was invested in this business in the Cape Colony alone, and the export of feathers for the year 1880 amounted to £883,632 in value, the produce realising £5, 8s. 4d. per lb. (In 1894 the price fell to £1, 7s. per lb., but by 1901 it had steadily advanced to over £2 per lb.) It is stated that "the domestication of ostriches for the purpose of farming them for the sake of their plumage must be taken to date from 1867." The volume affords every information to those intending to follow the occupation of ostrich farming, and there are a number of engravings, mostly illustrative of the industry, and a map of South Africa.' - Mendelssohn Vol.I, page 481