The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-07
RABBIT HUNTING IN COLORADO.

over, and the Denver hunters have re- returned from the sport. There were nearly 4,O00 rabbits killed, and these will be shipped to Pueblo, Central City, Black Hawk, Boulder, Cripple Creek, and this city, where they will be used for feasts for the poor people The calls for rabbits for this purpose have been many, and Parson Uzzell, who has for years attended to the distribution, says that he could use 100000 for char ity. The hunt was great success. The first day was cold and crisp, and the hunters had to keep moving. The sec ond was a better hunting day, and not near as hard on the city men. Besides about 4,00O rabbits the party killed six wild geese twelve ducks, one coyote, one badger, and one American eagle. The coyote and eagle will be photo- graphed in one group and all the other game in another. If the weather con- tinues cold the rabbits will not be dis turbed until Christmas, but if it turns warm they will be given away earlier. The parsons annual dinner to the poor will probably not be on Christmas day, but on Monday or Tuesday following. On Christmas day there would be vast difficulty in getting the requisite num- < Der of women to serve the dinner, as all wish to be at home on that day. The following Tuesday the necessary one hundred women could be on hand.
 The idea of the great rabbit hunt, which occurs annually, writes Parson Uzzell, was to protect the virgin soil from the depredations of the long-eared and longlegged animals, marrow guaged mules' as they are called in New Mexico, the jack rabbit. It was to rid the settlers along the Arkansas river in Colorado that yearly expedi- lions of ranchmen and others were first formed some six or seven years ago. Some idea of the extent of the injuries done by these animals in new coun- try may be gained by the statement made in a recent government report, entitled "The Jack Rabbits of the Unit ed States by F. s. Palmer, M. D., as sistant chief of the division of ornithol- ogy and mammalogy. In this report 1t is stated that the damage caused by jack rabbits to the crops in Tulare county, Col, during single year has been estimated at $600,0OO, and one country in Idaho has actually expended more than $30,000 in bounties on these pests. Besides these enormous outlays, it might be here mentioned that indi- vidual farmers in the west have eXpend- ed fabulous sums on rabbit fences and other devices for protecting their crops against jack rabbits. But the thou sands of rabbits destroyed for bounties and the tens of thousands killed in the Z big hunts apepar to diminish the abund- ance of the species only in those sec tions where the land is well under cul- tivation.
 It Is not generally known, but it is a fact, that the jack rabbit is one of the most prolific breeders of all animals. They breed every six weeks during the entire year, except in October, Novem- Der, and December, and have from five $ to seven progeny at litter.
 It will thus be seen, to the farmer in various sections of the west of the ex- termination of these pests is one of the most serious problems that confronts him. Especially is this true in Clorado in the counties of Prowers, Pueblo, Ara -pahee, and Fl Paso, where great fields of alfalfa are grown, the rabbits com ing in from sand hills and sage brush for miles around to winter. It must be remembered that five jack rabbits will consume as much as one sheep.
 tylL1ZG1lS OI ITOWGIS COullty, HctN III $ this in view, turned out en masse in December some six years ago, and de- stroyed in one day about 1,500 jack rab- bits. which were hauled in to Lamar and fed to the hogs It was not then known that the animals were fit for human consumption. The next year the Rev. T. A. Uzzell, pastor of the Peo- ple's Tabernacle, the place for the poor +o lac would assist in forming large hunt, and if he could use the killing among the poor. The idea was we'll received and he set to work, and the first great hunt was held in December, 1893. From that time on these hunts have been held each year. increasing in the num- ebr of gunners and rabbits killed Sportsmen from all parts of the state and from Nebraska and Utah have par ticipated in these events.
 A description of one of the hunts will suffice for all The hunt takes place in and about Lamar in Prowers county about 150 miles east of Pueblo, in the Arkansas Valley, 250 miles from Denver Lamar is a small village of about 50t or 600 people, although a county seat on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
 
 surround the cultivated lands
 We usually leave Denver at il p. m with from seventy-five to one hundred gunners, taking on large numbers al Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and La Jutna until the crowd is increased to one hun dred and twenty-five. Arriving at La mar about a. m. the following day we are all met by band and the en- tire population of the village, and al escorted to breakfast at hotels and resi- dences of the place. consisting of coffee ham and eggs and biscuit.
 After breakfast each hunter reports al a temporary headquarters that has beer prepared and gives to the committee his name and $1 and is supplied with g badge, which entities him to free rides in wagon and to entertainments, an6 in hauling in his dead rabbits, hanging them up for photographing. Each far mer takes in his waon and to his i'm mer takes in his wagon and to his i'm gunners as he can care for for two days and so the crowd is distributed off, some going in one direction and some in an. other, over the space for hunting grounds that extend for miles on al sides.
 In the middle of December, when the hunt occurs there has never excep1 once been snow upon the ground. It is the rule for the sportsmen to go upor