The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-30
CALIFORNIA; RABBIT PEST.
1T THREATENS TO BE As SERIOUS \
NATTER As AUSTRALIANS.

All Attempts to Kill on the Rabbits.
on the Pacific Coast UnsuccessfuI.
The Damage in Single County
Last Year Estimated mt 5000, 900.
The Pest in Australia.
From the New York Sun.
Cal!fornia's rabbit nuisance is assum-
ing proportions and making progress
which most unpleasantly suggest COM
par:son with the actual plague of rabbits
that afflicts Australia: a1licts II in
hopeless degree, according to the latest
reports of the various colonial govern
ments. California has lately adopted some
Australian methods of thinning out the
rabbits, and apparently with about the
same limited measure of success. In
Austria the attempt to exterminate them
has been given up, and every effort is
now directed to conhning the rabbits to
certain areas. or rather to keeping them
out Of certain cultivated regions. Even
this entails enormous expense on the gov
ernments and landowners, is by no means
sure, and often is unsuccessful.
1t is stated that in one county alone
in California the loss TO farmers from
rabbits and hares amounted last year to
fully 100000. Many experiments with poi
son have been made, but the farmers
have about concluded that the only thing
to do is occasionally to thin out the rab-
bits by holding big roundup hunts or
drives. The story of several of these
drives recently undertaken has been told
in the Sun. 1t is estimated that as a
result of 40 drives in all held in Cali
forpia $50, 400 rabbits have been killed.
But the latest reports say there is no
appreciable diminuton in their numbers.
Some a On "a of
South Wales offered a reward of f25,O 900
to any one who suggested a really eff
ficient method of getting rid of the rab-
bits This offer stood open for several
years, and more than 1000 schemes were
offered, coming from all parts of the
world. Many were tried, but none was
found to be wholly satisfactory, and final
~ the offer was Withdrawn, and the Aus
trahans tried to make up their minds to
the inevitable permanence of the pest.
Ferrets, sloats and weasels were import
ed and bred in thousands, and they have
done. good work. Poisons of all sorts were
| tried, but with little success. Cats were
introduced, and they also did good SER
| vice. But the rabbits multiply a such
an astounding rate that they have much
| more than held their own and have spread
| into new regions, destroying a large pro-
| portion Of all crops wherever they have
/ penetrated.
Directly and indirectly South Australia
| loses fully 100000 a year from rabbits.
| ne government Oh lClOTld mas Detn
working hard since 1880 trying to keep
\ down the plague, and has spent more than
| 1900 600 in the work. The amount of money
! spent by farmers and other land owners
| is in calculable. one man, owning a large
] estate has spent $1,000 in the last few
| years fighting rabbits. The government
estimates that no less than 37.750OO0 acres
| or land, farming and grazing, IN the col
ony of Victoria, is infested by rabbits.
Many schemes have been offered for
| making use of the rabbits commercially,
i nd y .trarr r.E
! the loss they cause. Many thousands are
Killed and their skins used, and something
of a trade has been built up in the ship
ment or rabbits to England and elsewhere
for food, either canned or frozen. But
the world can't live on rabbit meat, and
it would need to in order to afford the
Australians profitable way of making
use of their rabbits. The skins are large
ly used for many purposes. One concern
| in Victoria uses $4,000 rabbit skins every
year, and in the last seventeen years about
6S,000,000 skins have been exported from
Victoria.
There has been intercolonial confer
ences, attended by representatives of the
various governments and delegates from
the agricultural societies, at which every
phase of the question has been considered.
The final decision seems to be that EXTERN
| ination is impossible, and that the most
effectual way of dealing with the evil
is in building long fences of rabbit-proof
netting to keep the animals out of areas
not yet Infested, to shut them off from
food supplies, and also to get them to-
gether as much as possible so that they
can be raided by means of drives.
Some of the fences are hundreds of miles
long. One starts at Darlington, on the
Queensland border, follows the Main
Trunk Line from Bourke, and ends at Co
rowa, extending in IN unbroken line for 407
miles. There is another such fence along
the entire western boundary of New South
Wales, SAG miles long. But even this he
roic remedy is not unfail!ng. The fences
are liable TO break down, especially in
times of flood. and particularly when they
cross rivers and creeks. 1t is impossible
to keep the fences under complete and
constant supervision in order that breaks
may be repaired Immediately, and it does
not take long for few thousand rabbits
to pour through a break once they find it,
1t is stated that in many instances hun
dreds OF thousands of rabbits have been
seen dead or dying on the outer side of
the fence. having eaten up all the available
food supplies, and making vain efforts to
leap over the closely woven wire netting
These fences are expensive TO build and
expensive TO maintain. They have 10 be
sunk a considerable depth as well as built
up quite high. But after many years of
heavy loss and disheartening struggles
the Australians have come to consider this
as the only means of dealing with the