The Portland daily press., 1896-04-21
CALIFORNIA; RABBIT PEST.
1t Threatens to be as Serious Matter
as Australia's.

as AuSU1 aAbah ..
ALI attempts to Kill Off the Rabbits on the
age in Single County Last Year Esti-
mated at 60O.OO0-The Pest in Aus
tralia.
California's rabbit nuisance is assum-
ing proportions and making progress
which most unpleasantly suggests COM
parlson with the actual plague of rabbits
that afIliots Australia; affiicts it in a
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 suo-
cess. In Australia the attempt to exter-
inmate them has been given up and
every effort is now directed to combining
the rabbits to certain areas, or rather to
keeping them out of certain cultivated
regions. Even this entails enormous OK
pense on the Governments and landown-
ers, is by no-means sure, and often is
successful.
1t is stated that in one county alone in
California the loss to farmers from rab-
bits and hares amounted last year to fully
5000. 600. Many experiments with poison
have been made, but tho farmers have
about concluded that the only thing to do
is occasionally to thin out the rabbits by
holding big roundup hunts or drives
The story of several of these drives re-
Gently undertaken has been told in The
Sun. 1t is estimated that as result of
40 drives in all held in California 1876, 400
rabbits have been Killed. But the latest
reports say there is no appreoiable dimiu-
ution in their numbers.
Some years ago the Government of New
South Wales offered reward of 25, 900
pounds to any one who suggested really
| efficient method of getting rid of the
rabbits. This offer stood open for several
years, and more than 2,OOO schemes were
offered, coming from all parts of the
world. Many were tried, but none was
found to be wholly satisfactory, and final
| ly the offer was withdrawn, and the
Australians tried to make up their minds
to the inevitable permanence of the pest
| Ferrets, stoats, and weasels were import
ed and bred in thousands, and they have
done good work. Poisons of all sorts
were tried with but little success. Cats
were introduced, and they also did good
service. But the rabbits multiply at
such an astounding rate that they have
much more than held their own, and
have spread into new regions, destroy
ing large proportion of all crops where
| yer they have penetrated.
| Directly and Indirectly South Australia
loses fully 10000 pounds year from
rabbits. The Government of Victoria
has been working hardisince 1880 tying
to keep down the plague, and has spent
more than 800. 600 pounds in the work.
The amount OF money spent by farmers
and other landowners ia incalculable.
One man, owning large estate, has
spent Is, 600 pounds in the last few years
| fghtingrabbits. The government estimates
that no less than 81. $50. 900 acres of land,
farming and grazing, in the colony of
Victoria, is infested by rabbits.
Many schemes have been offered for
making, use of the rabbits commercially,
and thus recodping at least little of the
loss they cause. Many thousands are
killed and their skins used, and some
thing of a trade has. been built up In the
shipment of rabbits to England and else
where for food, either canned or frozen.
| But the world can't live on rabbit meat
and it would need to in order to afford
to the Australians profitable way of
making use of their rabbits. The skins
are largely used for many purposes. Que
concern in Victoria uses 374, 600 rabbit
skins every year, and in the last seven
teen years about IS, 600, 900 skins have
been exported from Victoria.
| There have been intsrooloniaI confer.
ences, attended by representatives of the
various Governments and delegates from
the agricultural socities. at which every
phase of the question has been considered
| The final decision seems to be that ex-
termination 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
| together 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 CoroWa, extending In an unbroken
| line for 407 miles. There is another such
fence along the entire western boundary
| Of New South Wales, 346 miles long.
| But even this heroic remedy is not I'M
down, especially in times of flood, and
particularly where they cross rivers and
creeks. 1t is impossible to keep the
fences under complete and constant super
vision in order that breaks may be re.
paired Immediately, and 1T does not take
| long for few Thousand rabbits to poul
through a break once they find it. It il
stated that in many instances hundreds