Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1888 — RABBIT AND KANGAROO. [ARTICLE]

RABBIT AND KANGAROO.

Attempts to Exterminate These Pestiferous Animals in the Australian Colonies. San Francisco JCxaminer. * lately concerning the wholesale slaughter of rabbits in Fresno and the adjoining counties by means of “drives” is true, a dual object has beep attained*, viz, the infroductirfln of a novel and excitijig sport and the discovery of an antidote to the ravages of those herbivorous pests. Just fancy ten thousand being exterminated ■"■at one and the modus operandi of rounding up, viz, the stretching of two light wire netting fences, which converge until they culminate in a kind of stockyard, into which the beaters drive their quarry, is so simple that the wonder is it was not thought of long ago. It is morally certain that Australia and New Zealand, those rabbit-ridden countries, will be quick to adopt the idea, and probably the farmers of those distant islands will find the method more effective in the matter of allaying the rabbit nuisance than all the theories of inoculation. ' An examiner reporter met a gentleman recently who had been, largely indentified with pastoral interests both in Australia and New Zealand; and from him some interesting facts were, ascertained in connection with the efforts of antipodean agriculturists to combat the plague of the long-eared pests. “The driv.e idea,” said the gentleman, is not entirely new to Australians. They have for years employed a somewhat similar method of ridding pastoral lands of the destructive kangaroo. The usual way was to build a capacious stockyard with a very high fence, for your ablebodied kangaroo is no slouch at playing leap-frog. The location generally chosen was on the fork of a river, for kangaroos are not extra partial to water. Invitations to the round-up would be sent to the neighboring farmers, and on a specified morning, mounted,-and accompanied .by whatever kangaroo hounds they chanced to possess. Dogs and owners would then get away back and scatter out in skirmishing order until a large section of country was covered, and then circum-navigation was in order, the object point, of course, being the lofty stockyard. “Prety soon you would hear the baying of scores of hounds, and then the" long-jumping marsupials would .be seen leaping like gigantic frogs, while the skirmishers would advance a nfl close in steadily and systematically, controlling the hounds the while, so as to direct the hopping kangaroos to the desired point. When the mob, which on occasion numbered many hundreds, were finally housed in the places of slaughter some one was sent to close the drawgate on them, and the fun commenced, The dogs were restrained, and family relics in the shape of blunderbusses and ancient flintlochs were brought into requisition until the last grass and crop despoiler had bitten the dust.” \ “Kangaroos make it rough for the hounds on some occasions, do they not?” asked the reporter. “You bet they do. An old man kangaroo is just as tough a bit of mechanism as ever a dog tackled. When fairly connered he will place his back against a dree.or roek-andiny i te -the-best -dog-4n-the pack to come on. Old dogs are wary of them, and use their best endeavors to get an ear or neck hold from behind, but a young hound will frequently rush into the bayed marsupial’s arms, so to speak, and if he gets away alive he is lucky. The kangaroo will balance himself firmly,on his tail, which is both powerful and springy, and will clasp the dog around the body with his hind legs, while he will utilize the sharp claws of his fore paws to tear the brute’s stomach into ribbons and haul its entrails out. “I remarked; before that kangaroos did not take kindly to water, but when goaded to desperation on a plain where there are no trees or rocks in sight to back up against they will not hesitate to flop into a water hole, and it is a matter of history that a kangaroo thus placed has been known to grasp an attacking hound and hold him under water until he was drowned. “The days of rounding up are pretty well at an end now, as the Government of the different Australian colonies pay so much a scalp for kangaroos, and this has induced-numbers of hunters to follow the business of kangaroo shooting. By this meant the troublesome animals are kept down, and it is only'A question of a little time when they will wholly exterminated.” • From kangaroos the conversation drifted back to the rabbit question, the gentleman from the antipodes related his experience in the matter, together with the of colonial governments to subdue the pests. “First of all, I suppose you have heard that valuable pastoral holdings, both in New Zealand and Australia, have had to be abandoned through the depredation of rabbits, and I assure you that the losses these harmless-looking creatures have entailed have been very much underestimated. The rabbits in the colonies are borrowers, and this makes them harder to get at A few years ago a system of fencing with wire netting was introduced there, but it only proved effective on uniformly leve land. Rabbits do not, as a rule, burrow fiat places, but where the fence ran over

the slightest knoll or hill bunny would get his deadly work in by riddling the mound with holes and opening up an avenue to the inner pastures. “On small holdings she owners obviated the difficulty “by. sinking narrow Ireiffhee and inserfingthe wire netting* below ground, but the cost this- system would entail in making a large run rabbit proof would constitute total aban ? donment of the place a profitable alternate. It is only on these large runs that the depredations are felt severely, as around farms and tillage lands the constant presence of ploughmen and other" laborers scares away the colonial rabbit, which is as shy as it is destructive, J/ have often read of grasshopper plagues in this and othdr countries, but I don’t think there can be a more’desolate sight than that of a run which has been abandoned to rabbits. I believe that out that way the furry destroyers breed four or five times a yehr. “The methods experimented with in order to exterminate them have been as varied as they were ineffective. Poisoned grain was tried, but a short experience illustrated the fact that valuable sheep and cattle dogs were killed through eating poisoned rabbits, while sheep were occasionally poisoned by eating the grain. Then an enterprising German- came along and announced to the long suffering colonial stockmen that he had an infallible remedy for the curse. His plan was to inject some poisonous acids into the burrows, but as far as appeared on the surface the rabbits devoured his patent medicine and asked for more. Then we began to introduce ferrets and kindred small but vindictive animals, which it was expected would glide noiselessly into the burrows, and in time wipe the rabbits off our section of the globe. The ferrety, however, after awhile tired of an exchisi \ ( ral)bit diet and turned their attention to poultry. They have also been known to attack children, there being oije case in particular where a child at Damara, New Zealand, had its eyes nearly eaten out before assistance arrived. I have not heard anything anent the ferret question lately, but I should not wonder if the colonists are? not, in pursuance of the chain of destruction they have organized, looking around for some antidote to ferrets. The. only method there has been in any manner, effective in keeping the rabbits down iff the colbnies has been the employment of men known as rabbiters. They are, as a rule, clever with the fowling piece, and the run-holders supply them with ammunition and ‘tucker’ (Anglice, provisions). They wage a steady and merciless war on the pests, and as rabbit skins properly cured find a ready sale, rabbiting is a fairly lucrative calling. The introduction of this method of meeting the difficulty on the New Zealand side has been brought about by the establishment of a rabbit department, the maintenance of which costs the government SIOO,OOO a year.”

Dr. Dunning Surprises a “Drummer." Lewiston Journal-- - “ • —- — : -—The Rev. A. E. Dunning, D. D., the manager of the Congregational ist publishing house and Sabbath-school work, and one of the busiest men in Boston, is an off-hand, approachable man with a bright, winning face, easy manner and personal magnetism, that contribute much to his success. He has none of but looks more like a business man. He travels nearly all of the time and he says that in the cars he generally passes as a drummer and is recognized by the fraternity as one of their number. On going to. Minneapolis one Saturday evening, a smart young fellow approached him in a free and easy way: “Going to stop over Sunday?” “Yes,” replied the Doctor. “Stop at the Blank Hotel, I suppose?”“No, lam going to stop with a friend.” “Come round to the hotel to-morrow afternoon and we’ll have a racket. Quite a number of the boys will be there” , <• ' ; “But to-morrow is Sunday.” “I know it, and that’s why we can have such a devil of a good time.” “Oh, I think that we fellows who are traveling all the time ought to keep Sunday,” said the Doctor. “Yes,” assented the drummer goodnaturedly, “but I’ll bet you won’t!” tlL’ll tell you what I’ll do; I’ll go to church to-morrow if you will!” “I’ll do it! Where shall we go?” “To the First Congregational. It’s the best church in town.” . “All right. I’ll be there, but I bet yon won’t!” The drummer was there according to his promise, and could hardly believe his eyes when he saw his friend of the night before ascend to the pulpit. Dr. Dunning tried to find him after the service, but he had fled.

The Persian Minister at Washington Hadji Hassein Khouli Khan, Persian ambassador at Washington, always sleeps with his hands resting in a pan of cold water. He got into this habit partially because he has been used to a warm climate and could cool his blood in this way, and also because in Teheran mosquitoes are a great pest Hadji claims that a mosquito will not bite a man who has both hands plunged in water. He asserts that it is heated blood which a mosquito desires, and I that a person whose veins have been slightly chilled offers na attraction to the pernicious insect.