The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1893-05-08
RABBIT ROUND-UPS.
How the California Vineyardists
Deal with the Pests.
An Annual Gathering at Which Thou
sands of Jack Rabbits Are Cor
rallied and Exter-
minated.

''The people out in Fresno county,
Cal, are getting ready for their annual
roundup and slaughter of jack rab-
bits said leading vineyardist of Fres-
no to d New York Sun man recently.
''If it wasn't for this early spring sys-
tematic raid upon these destructive
pests we would have scarcely vine
yard or an orchard left in southern
California. On one day in March, gen
orally between the 10th and 18th, the
grape and small-fruit growers collect
together in their respective districts
and beat the country thoroughly to
drive the swar1ning jack rabbits from
their hiding places into immense wire
inclosed cOrrals, where they are at the
mercy of their pursuers, and are
knocked in the head with clubs by the
thousand. L have known fifteen thou
sand jack rabbits to be slaughtered in
this way in a few hours. More than
that, these rabbits are such prolific
breeders that every one killed in March
or April means that there will be TWEEN
ty-five or thirty less than there would
have been if the rabbits knocked in the
head in the spring had been permitted
to live until the fall. These round-ups
are the only means we have ever dis
covered by which the jack rabbit pest
has been kept down.
1.-THE rabbits are unusually fond of the
young shoots of the grapevines, when
they make their appearance in the
spring, and of the tender bark of prune
plum and other fruit trees, when the
sap starts. 1 have known twenty
acres of vineyard ruined in a single
night by the chopping of the shoots by
lr nd ards Of
valuable bearing trees killed by the
rabbits girding them. Poison. traps
and guns failed to kill off the rabbits
fast enough, and fruit growing in that
part of California could necessarily
have been to a great extent abandoned
if Fresno county genius hadn't
evolved the corralling idea five years
ago. The rabbits are driven into the
great wire-inclosed pound by hundreds
of people-nen, women and children
closing in around them and pre-
venting them from going in any
other direction, except the one
that leads them into the corral.
Different districts have different days
for setting out on the roundup, and the
slaughter goes on through March and
April 1t is safe to say that one hun
dred thousand jack rabbits are thus
killed every spring in that part of the
state. AS at that season of the year
this big rabbits flesh is in excellent
condition and the animal is highly es-
teemed as food a two-fold benefit is de-
rived from this great yearly slaughter.
''The California jack rabbit is the big
gest rabbit in existence, one five feet
long being not uncommon. They are as
feet as the wind, but will sit still on
their forms, or by the roadside, until
you have almost grabbed them by their
mule-fiSe ears, but before you have
closed your fingers on them there will
be no rabbit there. but if you look thir
ty or forty yards ahead you will see
what you think is another one bumped
up in a fluffy bunch, waiting for you il
the same way. But it won't be another
rabbit. 1t will be the same one. They
are swift and sudden as the heas that
swarm on them as soon as the summer
comes. These 1eas get so thick upon
the jack rabbit and are so ravenous that
they have actually reduced the long
cared, four-footed jumper to skeleton
by the time the fall rains set in. If it
wasn't for these regular fall rains the
Heas would be of great service to us in
destroying the rabbit pest, for the rab-
bits could not stand out many days
longer against the assaults of the lively
parasites. But the fall rains are fatal
to the deas. The water kills them and
washes them off the rabbits and the lat
ter pitch in our vineyards and orchards
and grain with sharpened appetites." !"