Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1901 — Facts About the Rabbit Pest. [ARTICLE]

Facts About the Rabbit Pest.

New Zealand’s rabbit pest can be appreciated only by inspection of the figures submitted by the Secretary of Agriculture of that colony for the year ended July, 1900, and recently published in his annual report. He states that during the year ended July 1, 1900, 5,152,877 rabbits and 7,744,638 rabbit skins were exported, as against 4,214,962 rabbits and 6,504,189 skins shipped the preceding year. This increase in the number of rabbits killed is, in his opinion, not an encouraging sign, but rather the reverse. The Inspectors of stock for the various districts report that phosphorized pollard, when carefully laid, is the most effective means of stamping out the animals without injury to stock. It appears, however, that careful supers vision is necessary in the use of this poison to produce good results. Other methods of dealing with the problem, which are not so effectual as the use of poison, but which have the advantage of leaving the dead rabbits in such condition as to be salable, are trapping, shooting and hunting with ferrets or dogs. For comparatively small enclosures wire netting is without doubt the best means of dealing with rabbits, and every year sees an increasing quantity of it being erected. Its great expense, however, prevents its being applied to large farms or ranges.