Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-10-01

receive the replies, nor was it expected
that they would have anything to do with
the matter except to put the advertisement
in the papers. But some of the bright
men and women who wanted to capture
the fortune offered sent their plans for the
destruction of the rabbits direct to the
Messrs. Cameron, and for a month their
mail was loaded with plans written and
plans mapped out, and even models of
fences and traps and other devices. Some
of the clever people told the Camerons
that they would like to have half the prize
money Sat once" and would take the rest
when the rabbits had all been destroyed.
1t may interest the people of this conti-
nent who suggested schemes for the de-
struction of the rabbits, to be told that
not one of them has been deemed satisfac-
tory. In fact, none of the plans present
ed to the royal commission has been ap-
proved, and the prize is still in the market
for some genius.
The number of rabbits in Australia is
estimated at hundreds of millions. New
South Wales exported in one year fifteen
million skins. Most of these rabbits were
killed with poisoned grain and traps, and
experts say that only about one-sixth of
those destroyed by poison are ever found,
for the reason that after taking the poison
they die in their burrows and other inac-
cessible places. In a recent report made
to the Crown Lands department of Victo-
ria it is stated that two pairs of rabbits
left for three years undisturhed and with
plenty of food will increase to more than
five million. Another authority says that
the ordinary term of a rabbits life is from
seven to ten years, and it has been COM
puted that the progeny of two rabbits left
se&- l,a1 Ill - -.
times in the year, and to have their first
litter at four months old, would amount to
thirteen million seven hundred and eight
cen thousand. Perhaps these estimates
are inaccurate, but, at any rate, those who
have had any experience with rabbits will
not be inclined to question their marvellous
capacity for multiplying themselves. AT
Terwawnia, in 1889, sixty thousand acres
of grass were laid waste by them. The
owner exerted himself to the utmost to
get nd of the pest, but even after the de-
struction of an enormous number there
! were rabbits enough left to eat up every
blade of grass on his lands In another
| plantation on the west bank of the river
| Darling, the area of which is slightly in
excess of one million acres, the govern
ment inspector counted the skins of one
million three hundred and eighty-four
thousand four hundred and seventeen rab-
bits destroyed upon this holding in one
| year. The pest extended through the
whole of the southwestern portion of the
country, bounded by line commencing
at point on the river Murray, where the
colonies of South Australia, Victoria and
New South Wales meet.
Tame rabbits were brought to Australia
in the early history of the country, but
when let loose they did not spread. A
| &c @al
near Geelong and their progeny spread
over Victoria, and later entered Queens
land. They created such destruction that
| legislation was made necessary, and laws
| for their obliteration were passed in 1879
in South Australia, in 1890 in Victoria, in
1888 in New South Wales, in 1884 in New
Zealand and Queensland, in 1887 in Tas-
mania. The amount of money spent by
the various Australian governments from
1888 up to May 81 1885, was s., ,SS6, ,211. The
expenditures in other ways for the same
purpose will bring the total to more than
six million dollars. The government has
paid small sum for each rabbit scalped,
and in some cases it has happened that the
rabbits have thus been worth more to the
farmers than their live stock. Inspectors
who have investigated the matter believe
that no matter what system of extermina-
ton is employed, whether trapping, poi
soning or shooting, the rabbits will be
forthcoming SO long as the government is
authorized by law to pay for their scalps
They say it is simply case of demand
creating supply. When twenty rabbits
will bring the price of one sheep ther'
will always be some hard pressed squattel
tempted to catch twenty rabbits rather
than to raise one sheep. In many dis
tricts the amount paid for the destruction
| of rabbits has far exceeded the amount re-
ceived for rent from the lands.
The payment of subsidies became so un.
popular in New South Wales some time
ago that the government determined to
discontinue it. Rabbits are, however, in.
creasing in number there. and threaten to
become greater plague than ever, al
though it is said that the rains during tn,
past season have been abundant thai
there will be grass enough both for hy,
stock and for rabbits. Among tn,
schemes proposed for the killing of tn,
| rabbits are the use of phosphorized grain
strychnine, arsenic. the injection of bisul
phide of carbon into the burrows, the in
PRODUCTION of ferrets and stoats, the erec
ton of traps, and hunting with dogs an'
, guns. Objections exist to all of thes
: methods. One of the schemes which tn
commissioners thought especially worth.
of notice was that of catching the rabbit
in traps, and killing the does and allowing
' the bucks to escape, the theory being tina
under this method the bucks would be
, come more numerous than the does an,
[ would worry them to death. This plan j
, now being tried by one of the members o
the commission. The most importan
scheme investigated by commissioners wa
that of NJ. Pasteur, in which he propose
to destroy rabbits by inoculating numbe
e of them with the microbes of chicke
cholera. The French scientist wrote 6
| follows:
"With regard to the rabbit plague,
q have not confided TO any one the secret c
: the use, on large scale, of the mean
which have proposed for the partial {
. total determination of these rodents
!, , the adoption of chicken cholera. 1t is t
: = the government of Sydney that L wi
: make it known, if there be occasion. N
), representatives have only one thing to dc
. and / have sent them to do it, at the N
!, quest of that government; they have
: show that have proposed a means harm
= less to domestic animals; a means whic
kills the rabbits in twenty-fou hours aftt
a single meal sprinkled with the microbe
and that this means is contagious-that
to say, that the rabbits which have take
the fatal meal communicate the disea:
and death in notable manner to health
rabbits with which they are mixed as the
are In the burrows. How to arrange II
the manufacture of the fatal ingredien
how to mix and use at a distance this il
gredient, with all its properties, that
my secret, about which the commission
to see and know nothing, for the presen
which will only make known if the pri
proposed on August 81, 1887, is awardt
to me-"
The commission finally arranged for Il
establishment of an experimental static
on Rod Island, an isolated spot in Sydn'
harbor, under the supervision of Pasteul
representatives, who had been sent
Sydney to explain his plans. ExpeI
ments carried out by these gentlemen, I
gether with a number of tests by ID
Katz, on behalf of the commission, led
the decision not to recommend the intr
duction of chicken cholera as a means
the determination of rabbits. 1t was he
by the commission that it would be ina
visable to disseminate broadcast disea
which had not been shown to exist in t
colonies, which in other countries preva
in disastrous epidemics among the fov
but has never been known to prevail nat
rally among rabbits.
Other suggestions We're that some 9th
'r disease be introduced among the rabbi
such as smallpox, glanders, hydrophobi
tuberculosis, or nasal catarrh, which
a. known to be peculiarly fatal to rabbit
:, In all there were one hundred and fifte
10 schemes for destruction by disease. L
lg commission, of course, hesitated gre
d, deal about introducing into the count
m any such disease as might be carried fro