San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-08-03
UTILIZING AUSTRALIAN RABBITS.
Their Value in the Hat and Canning
Industries.

luJeINIt" III Ine san IlduCISCO SuiOh
icIe.
"There are ten companies in Aus
tralia and four in New Zealand en-
gagged I'D the rsbbitskin trade. OF
these one half add the meat canning
to their business. You will under
stand, therefore, that there is big
monopoly, which is not at all anxious
to see the rabbits eXterminated. IN
terested with it is very large mum.
DER of the population, who find rabbit
killing more remunerative and less
hard work than farming.
"Pasteur endeavored to exterminate
the rabbits by inoculati ton with chicken
cholera. 1t is well known to those
behind the scenes that he did not get
fair trial, and in fact, was so him
dered and hampered that he with
drew his agents from further expert
ment. The question has come up
before the Government again, and a
bill Is now before the Sydney Legis-
lature asking for vote to build q
brick wall entirely around the agri-
cultural boundary of the colony of
South Wales. Rabbits will not
burrow lower than 2 1.2 feet, and it is
proposed to sink the wall to the
limit OF depth. The wall being once
built a general determination of
rabbits within that Enclosure Will be
commenced and carried through. The
other colonies will watch the expert
ment with great interest, and If it
succeeds will probably all follow suit.
Such a course would confine the
rabbits to the great Australian bush,
in whose sandy deserts they would
soon die out.
What use is made of all these
rabbit skins? Why, the nat on your
head is made of them. The hair Is
plucked off the pelt by hand. A
.ort Inc awaits the man who can in
vent a machine To do IL. A fine blue
fur is then lett on the pelt. The. skin
is then pared away from the fur by
delicate machinery, machinery so
fine that when the last pairing is cut
off the fur sometimes hangs in one
filmy section. This Is worked up into
felt. Ordinary hats are made from
rabbit skin. A better class is made
from hare's skin. The best are made
from the nuJria, kind of water raG
trapped in BueDos Ayres, and then
come beaver and musquash, obtained
in the United States and Canada.
The COW boy wants the best hat in
the world, and as he pays for is, he
gets it. The nutria felt stands wet
and remains stiff brimmed after soak
ing, because it Is made from the fur
of a WAGER animal. The American
jack rabbit is no use at all to the
trade. The English rabbit supple 8
the best furlike silk, but OF
course not water proof. Then comes
the New Zealand rabbit, followed by
the Australian.
1--WE used to export hats in quantity
from England to America, put now
the Americans can dress skins as well
as the English, and they make all
their own hats, importing their fur
from US, of course. L do not under
stand why the United States does not
import rabbit skins direct from Aus
tralia, seeing the enormous quantity
which 1t buys from England. At q
rough guess 1 should calculate the
United States manufactures IS 600
hats every day, while England manu-
features about 100000. The largest
hat mandatory in the world is the
Brussels, which turns out 10000 hats
a day.
why am 1 interested in the ex'
termination of rabbits in Australia
Well, I am interested in one of the
chief fur companies in London, and
we wasn't to see our English rabbit
multiplying Australian competitors