The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-05-22
THE JACK RABBIT CROP.
A Way Discovered for Utilizing It in
Kansas

Kansas.
The Kansas jack rabbit, which from
time immemcrial has been accorded the
unquestionable freedom Of the prairies,
with only an occasional jack rabbit
roundup to disturb his peaceful pos
session of the fields, henceforth must
be ever on the alert, for price mas
been set upon his head.
Thousands upon thousands of dollars
are thrown away every winter because
sportsmen do not know that jack rab-
bits hides are valuable. Sporting clubs
and individual hunters kill many thou
sands of the lithe-limbed jacks every
winter simply for the sport of killing.
Occasionally cargo of the rabbits thus
slain are sent to the relief committees
/ in the larger cities for gratuitous dis
tribution among the poor, and many a
family in the tenement districts OF the
great cities has sat down thankfully
to steaming hot dinner of jack rabbit
soup, dish not to be scorned by any
lover of game meats. But despite the
inroads of hunters upon the ranks of
the Kansas jack rabbits they have fol-
lowed the Scriptural Injunction to in
crease and multiply until they are so
numerous in some counties as to be re-
garded as pests.
A number of dealers in hides in vari-
GUS cities in Kansas at last have awak-
ened to the fact that jack rabbit hides,
known in commerce as American hare
pelts, are in great demand in the East
ern markets, and notices similar to the
following are appearing in many papers
throughout the State:
I'VE will buy nicely handled, cased
Jack rabbit skins at cents each; open
ed or damaged half price; culls and
pieces, cents pound. Must be per-
fectly dry and free of meat"
The buyers say that these are almost
New York prices. A skilled rabbit
hunter at these prices may easily make
50 day, besides having his usual sport.
The skins of the jack rabbits are used
for making hats. The best quality hats
are made from fur, and the fur has
heretofore been obtained from Austria
liza, where the rabbits are successfully
disputing the possession of the country
with the human inhabitants. The skins
go through shaving machine, and the
fur is shaved off very close. 1t is then
cleansed and subjected to variety of
of processes until it comes out per-
feet head covering, shapely and stylish
and ready for the bandbox. 1t requires
about a dozen rabbit skins to make one
hat.
1t has been found that the fur OF the
bIack-tailed Kansas jack rabbit is
superior to all other materials for hat
making purposes, as 1t is longer and
stronger, and there is very little waste
in the process. The hides are larger,
too, and more hats may be made from
a given number of Kansas jack rabbit
skins than from a corresponding num-
Der of the hides Of other varieties OF
rabbits. When your hat blows Off In
a gale and goes bounding away down
the street it may not be altogether the
fault of the wind; who knows but that
the hat is still instinct with the life OF
the Kansas jack rabbit, and revealing
in a race with the wind? For the Kan
sas variety of jack rabbit is by far the
| feetest of the whole rabbit family. A
black-tailed jack rabbit will leave a
greyhound hopelessly behind in race