The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-06-13
SEVEN RA3B rs AND 4 THISTLE.
They Have Been the Cause Of Two Of
the Greatest Plaques in Australia.

They Have Been the Cause Of Two Of
the Greatest Plaques in Australia.
A friend writes me from Austria
liza that the rabbit pest is in no way
diminished, Notwithstanding. the eff
forts of governments and individu-
ais in the way of wholesale slaughter
of bunnies wherever they abound.
"A few weeks ago." writes my
friend, II went up country, and
several times when l looked out of
the windows Of the railway train
the ground was so covered with rab-
bits that for miles away it looked
like a great field of grain waving in
the wind. The offer of 945,OOO
| ($225, ,OOO) of the New South Wales
Government for process of whole
sale determination that shall not
endanger human beings or domestic
animals and fowls is still open, and
the successful man can count upon
a public subscription to an equal
amount, and also upon a reward
from each of the other Australian
governments. Many millions of
rabbits are killed in Australia every
year, but the immense slaughter
does not keep down the numbers
rabbit skins are an article Of COM
merce, and in most of the cities
there are rabbit skin exchanges just
as we have cotton or corn exchanges
in American cities. In single city,
Dunedin, NewZealand, Is, 900, 900 Of
rabbit skins are sold at the exchange
every year, and in some years the
dealings have reached 2O,OOO,OOO.
The bunnies in the Australian Col
onies are all descended from seven
rabbits that were taken there from
England in 1851; an enterprising
Australian on a visit to the mother
country thought that it would be a
fine thing to have some rabbits at
the Antipodes SO that they could be
'coursed' with dogs, and when he
returned he took cage full of the
harmless little animals. For year
or so all that he bred we're distrib-
uted through the colonies, as every
body wanted them; his name is not
held in affectionate remembrance,
and he is not looked upon as ben
efactor of his race. In England,
as in America, the increase of the
rabbits is kept within bounds by
the foxes, wolves and other noxious
animals that prey upon them; there
was no such restraint in Australia,
and hence the terrible result. Thou
sands and thousands of square
miles of land suitable for sheep
pasturing have been devastated by
rabbits, and hundreds of farmers
and sheep-owners have been ruined
financially.
WHAT A THISTLE DID.
"a Scotchman living in Australia
and visiting his native land carried
back thistle, the emblem of Scot
land, as the reader is doubtless
aware. A grand banquet was held
in Melbourne by 200 Scotchmen,
and the thistle, in large vase, oc-
cupied the place Of honor in the
center of the table. 1t was toasted
and cheered, and the next day ii
was planted with great deal of re.
joicing. The thistle grew and
thrived, and in due time it's down
was scattered by the winds; other
thistles sprang from the seed, and
their down was scattered, and In a
few years the thistle had made itself
thoroughly at home in all parts OF
Australia. 1t has rooted out the
native grasses on thousands
could almost say millions-of acres
of pasture land, destroying sheep
runs by the hundred, and caused
general execration Of the Scotch.
man who took so much pains tc
import the original. In a similar
manner the watercress, the English
J sparrow, the common sweetbriel
and other exotics have proved very
. troublesome and caused immense
losses. The watercress has choked
rivers, caused great floods and I'M
! peded navigation; the sweetbrier
has become a strong and tenacious
bush which spreads with great ra.
{ pidity, destroying the grasses; and
the innocent daisy has been nearly
as injurious as the thistle. Fifty
English sparrows were taken te
Australia in 1860, and now there
are countless millions of them in
, all the colonies; they refuseto eat
! insects like their ancestors, but de-
= vote themselves to fruit, grain, peas
and other vegetable things, to the
, ruin of hundreds of farmers ano
. gardeners. Moral-Beware OF ex
: otics in a new country. ."-Milwauke'
; Sentinel.
The Bogus Butter Market.
The atempt to suppress the man
!, ufacture of oleomargarlne by put
| RI nv