The Opelousas courier., 1896-08-29
A RABBIT PEST.
California Threatened With a
Plague Like Australia.
Various Unsuccessful ATTEMPTS
to Exterminate the Animals.

''lmlng proportions and making prog
rcss which, according to the New
1ork Sun, most unpleasantly suggest
comparison with the actual plague of
rabbits that ~af1licts Australia; atl cts
1t IN a hopeless degree, according to
the latest reports of the various colon
lal governments. California has late
ly adopted some Australian methods
OF thinning out the rabbits. and ap-
parcntly with about the same limited
measure of success. In Australia the
attempt to exterminate 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 expense
on the governments and landowners,
is by no means sure, and often is I'M
successful.
1t is stated that in one county alone
in California the loss to farmers from
rabbits and hares amounted last year
to fully $500, 600. Many experiments
with poison have been made, but the
Farmers have about concluded that the
only thing to do is occasionally to thin
out the rabbits by holding big round
up hunts or drives. It is estimated
that as q result of 40 drives in all
held in California 356, 400 rabbits have
been killed. But the latest reports
say there is no appreciable %diminution
in their numbers.
Some years ago the government Of
New South Wales offered q reward of
$125, 900 to any one who suggested q
really efficient method of getting rid
of the rabbits. This offer stood open
for several years, and more than 2, 600
schemes were offered, coming from all
parts of the world. Many were tried,
but none was TO, nnd to be wholly salts
factory, and finally the offer was with
drawn, and the Australians tried to
make up their minds to the inevitable
permanence of the pest. Ferrets,
%stoats, and, weasels were imported and
bred in thousands, and they have done
~o@l u-orl- D>1cNn1 ~ oil co~%p -nr
tried with but little success. Cats
were introduced, and they also did
good service. But the rabbits null
tlply at such an astounding rate that
they have much more than held their
own, and have spread into new regions,s
destroying q large proportion of all
crops wherever they have penetrated.
The government estimates that no
less than 81, 75o, 900 acres Of land,
farming and grazing, in the colony Of
Victoria, is infested by rabbits.
Many schemes have been offered fer
making use Of the rabbits m
cially, and thus recouping at least a
little of the loss they cause. Many
thousands are killed and their skins
used, and something Of a trade has
been built up in the shipment of rab-
bits 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
to the Autralians a profitable way of
making use Of their rabbits. The
skins are largely used for many pur-
poses. One concern in Victoria uses
374, 600 rabbit skins every year, and
in the last seventeen years about 6S,-
900, 900 skins have been exported
from Victoria.
There have been in%tercolonial con-
ferences, attended by representatives
Of the various governments and dele
gates from the agricultural societies,
at which every phase Of the question
has been considered. The final de-
cision seems to be that determination
is impossible, and that the most effec-
tual 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 cut 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 Barringun,
on the Queensland border, follows the
Main Trunk line from Bourke, and
ends at Corowa, extending in an un-
broken line for 4O7 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 unfailing. The
fences are liable to break down, espe-
cially in times of food, aud particu-
larly where they ross rivers and
creeks. 1t is impossible to keep the
fences under complete and con-
slant supervision in order that breaks
may be repaired Immediately, and it
does not take long for q few thousand
rabbits to pour through a break once