The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-08
HIS EMBARRASSING EXPERIENCE.
Georgia Man Who Has Bred More Than
$4,000 in Six Months for The North.

$4,000 in Six Months for The North.
From the Atlanta Journal.
Il received a letter from the man
whom / left in charge of my business,
in Walton county, stating that he had
succeeded in driving the first INSTALL
ment of rabbits from my farm to Win
der, where they We're loaded on the
cars night before last" remarked big,
fat, genial Billie Lamb as he overlook
a representative of the Journal.
That sounds like song" was the
reply.
Yes, it may sound like song but it's
gospel truth. There were 1,S00 of them,
and S. j. Manning drove them eight
miles through the country from my
farm at Winder, and they were safely
landed on the cars especially prepared
for shipment to Philadelphia and Balti-
more.
Where did you catch 'em?'
Il didn't have to catch em. | raised
the entire lot on my farm in Walton
county, where | spent the summer. You
see. it is a very paying business raising
hares for the Northern markets. They
are as easily managed as any domestic
animal if man will take a little pains
with them. Raising cotton does not be-
gin to compare with raising rabbits, as
they are called, upon the old field lands
of Georgia. | started with small be-
ginning, having caught my breeders in
boxes, and on a 12-acre field / have
bred between $4,000 and 10000 during
the past six months.
The lot that | was speaking of was
about half of a consignment of $500
which 1 sold to Captain Walter Brown,
a conductor on the Seaboard Air Line
railroad / am under contract to de-
liver the other LOO between now and
Monday, and if Manning has the same
success in driving the next lot that he
had in the first / shall be just $437.50
better off, and will have left thousands
of rabbits ready for other purchasers.
/ sold them to Captain Brown at 121a
cents apiece all around, and he will
sell them alive in the markets of Balti-
more and Philadelphia at from % to 30
cents each. so that you will see what
enormous profits may be made in hare
culture.
Manning wrote me that he did not
have the least trouble in driving that
big drove through the country. They
started from the farm, he ana boy
whom he employed to assist him, after
nightfall, and before daylight they had
the entire lot safely housed in the cars.
| The cars in which they are shipped are
arranged with tiers of boxes each just
large enough to hold one of the little
animals comfortably, and on their ar
rival at Winder they were driven into
which had been stopped, and the hates
mounted the inclined plane used in ship
ping stock without the least difficulty.
and as fast as one tier of boxes was
filled the coverings We're put in place
and another tier was filled.
The old field hare is a very timid
animal, and the sight of a dog would
have caused general stampede in the
drove. For that reason we cannot use
| dogs in driving them, and the man and
/ ,1rN,4
! did it by coaxing the hares in gentle
way, their natural timid disposition
/ causing them to stick together during
| the lengthy trip.
Il went into the business with the
| idea that it is easier and cheaper to
raise hares than chickens, and as they
1 are so much cheaper than poultry in
the market the demand for them Is cor
/ respondingly larger in the big cities of
| the North where they are considered
! as delicacy by those whose earnings
| will not permit of their paying 90 and
| 90 cents apiece for dickens.
Il have inclosed II acres of land.
/ The fence is built of woven wire, like a
! tennis court, and as hares are not dig
gers, like the English rabbit, there is
no trouble in keeping them within
| bounds. The fence is about four feet
/ high. and in the middle of the field
/ planted a two-acre turnip patch.
This furnishes them ample food.
with the herbs and grasses upon which
/ they feed, and which grow naturally in
the old fields. / stocked the farm with
j few breeders, and, even as much as
| knew of the habits and characteristics
of the hare | was astonished at the re-
suits Why, a man can take a male
and a dozen wellgroWn females and
stock a good sized farm in very short
time They multiply faster than any
| other animal l know of except the
white rat. In many instances | have
seen as many as 20 young in one litter.
They range all the way from 10 to 20
and never stop breeding during the en-
tire year.
They are remarkably free from
i disease, and soon become accustomed
to the presence of their keepers and
/ learn to eat from their hands. There
! is no estimating how many may be bred
on a small area within year. As for
4 the profits If | could sell all that | have
/ now on hand on as good terms as |
I sold that 3, 500. ] could realize more than
4 a Yankee off his orange grove
/ 1T is a very pleasant business, If a
man has the skill and patience to wait
i and watch While his income increases
in a sort of arithmetical progression.
Atlanta ships annually thousands and
/ thousands of hares from the valley of
the Cumberland in Tennessee, and there
| is no reason why the old fields of Geor-
! gia should not supply this as we'll as
contributing to the supply of other mar
| ketS."