The feather boom at its height

1900 · regional

The great boom. Around Prince Albert orchards, vineyards and even thorn trees are cleared "op groot skaal" for lucerne camps, and the town spends conspicuously. By 1913 South Africa exports 450 tonnes of feathers worth 3 million pounds - the fourth most valuable export after gold, diamonds and wool.

Sources

• Merino sheep and the ostrich feather boom in the Cape merinosa.co.za; southafrica.co.za (Oudtshoorn ostrich industry)

Told in

• mentioned Eighty-one thousand morgen