Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1886 — Value of Feathers. [ARTICLE]

Value of Feathers.

Fowls are reared chiefly for their eggs and flesh. Dr. Geargo,>of France, draws attention to the 'value of their feathers. A full-grown hen will yield from two and a half oisnces to four and a half ounces of feathers and down. The feathers serve for bonnet decorations, the ornamentation of military shakos, and for dusters. The averagesized feathers are employed for beds and bolsters; the down for pillows. But the latter' classes are not held in as much esteem as the same from geese and ducks. When the feathers are plucked they are placed for a short time in a baker’s oven, after the bread has been withdrawn, to kill the insect germs. Four sous is the average price for the feathers of a hen, but if from a white cock the price may rise as high as 3 francs. Pea-hen feathers are not employed in industry. Turkey feathers, if good and white, fetch as much as 12 to 20 francs; they are sold as ostrich feathers, and can be dyed all the colors of the rainbow. The feathers of the male are more esteemed than those of the female bird, Im the case of peacocks, the white feathers are most prized. The goose, however, is the bird which yields the most lucrative crop of feathers. Quill-farming having been extinguished, the geese are now plucked three times a year., on the breast and abdomen; their annual value is one franc. In the department of Vienne the goose is skinned before it is sent to market, and the skin, garnished with its down, is sold as swan’s skin, or down.