The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-12
A Pest it is Proposed to
Import.
This Animal Is Good Eating But it
Produces Six Big Litters
annually.

experiment in these Islands. The ques.
tiCns what is the Belgian hare, hov
does il differ from other hares, how
fecund is it and what are its good AM
bad points? deserve the answer they
have go far failed TO get.
This new idea in hares is the produc
of cross breeding between the English
wild hare and the red hare of Belgium
with divers subsidiary breedings fol
points. The result is the best that can
be expected from the genus lepus. In
Los Angeles everybody who has a
back yard is raising the Belgian cross
4 writer Of that city tells about it as
follows:
! Being a new thing the hare of course
attracts attention. But besides the
novelty it is also a beautiful animal,
| sleek, compact, ninbie, fleet, with
| movements like a race horse, and of a
! rich rufouS red color. 1t Is docile, af-
| fec--onate, and makes the most pleas
| ing of pets. 1t is a Clearly beast, re-
| quires less space TO herd than any
other animal of its size, and will eat
any vegetation consumed by the grant
vora. Potato parings, carrot tops and
cabbage leaves from the kitchen, which
even poultry will not peck, are vora-
ciously nibbled by the Dummies and
they thrive on such provender.
But the quality surprising all others
which has lifted the Belgian hare into
a vast popularity in Los Angeles is its
excellence as a table delicacy. AS
flesh for food this variety Of hare takes
To- =, 4 -, ~ fxr~.<~
a la Franchise and is as far in advance
OF spring chicken as is a celery eating
canvasback duck beyond a gray goose.
The flesh is white grained, juicy, tender
ana of a most savory flavor. It has
none OF the ranknesS or toughness so
ch2ra cteriStic of the prairie rabbit and
especially acceltuated in the jack rab-
biz. 4 roast stuffed and basted Belgian
SUI passes either roast pig or roast tur-
key and is essentially an ep;curean
dish.
For a long time after their intro
duction into Los Angeles they were not
offered for consumption at any price,
cne demand for them for breeding pur-
poses being SO great as to call for all
that any one having them was willing
to dispose of. Some table connoisseufs
procured the flesh at 81 per pound, a
up to SIS, and for six months, perhaps,
the ruling price of dressed animal in
Los Angeles was 81 per pound, price
in excess of any other flesh food ex-
cepting real SWeetbreads
Now, however, since the animal has
,uecome more common. and he has be-
gun to appear on the stalls and stands
of butchers and green grocers, the
price has fallen to 20 and Is cents per
pound, at which there are tons of them
sold daily in the city and the supply by
no means equals the demand.
IMMENSE FECUNDITY.
But besides nihe flesh qualities, the
beauty and character of the animal, the
ease with which it is raised in small
space, its entire freedom from vermin
and its remarkable indisposition to dis
ease, stands its marvellous fecundity.
In this respect IL parallels the guinea
pig The doe breeds at the age of eight
months, gestates in thirty days. and
brings forth from six to fourteen young
which gain a pound month from birth
until their eighth month. The doe
suckles the young thirty days, after
which she again breeds, and so pro-
duces six filters a year, which at an
average of eight to the litter would be
forty-eight hares per year, yielding 384
pounds of meat.
A Los Angeles newspaper published
statement that one hare which came
under its notice last year produced 4SO
pounds of meat" and declares this feat
to be not extraordinary. The same
paper indulging in a little geometrical
extravaganza, perhaps, remarks upon
the possibilities of single pair of
t,1x al in Sn ono
pair of hares only six lftters year
and but eight to the litter. such would
in five years aggregate the enormous
total of 4 1905, 181 $50 shares. Allowing
each hare only two square yards of
space, there would be required to ac-
commOdate the above number 21S
square miles of land. Allowing an
equal amount of land for the purpose
of raising alfalfa to feed the haIes, we
have a total of $50 square miles, an
area almost equal to that of Orange
county At only 81 each the owner of
these hares could buy all of Orange
county. including all improvements,
and could then build the Nicaragua
canal, pay off the public debt of the
United States, build 100 irst-class bat
tle-ships. give. S25 to each man, woman
and child in the United States. and still
nave ISIL Il lOTluuc. vi 3l.UUU,VUc,UUo.
VALUABLE FOR FUR.
Aside from their qualities as flesh
producers, the Belgian hare is valuable
for It's fur. The beautiful soft and
glossy red coat can he turned to a
thousand uses for which the fur of ami
mails is available. They make attrac-
tive ladies' boaS and have been even
manufactured into fur listers. But the
greatest use for the Belgian hide is
the manufacture of hats, especially
those Of the tile" variety, in which the
skin as we'll as the fur is used. Form
erly hundreds OF thousands of rabbit
skins came annually to San Francisco
from Australia, and were from here
distri buted over the country 10 the
various hat-making centers. the bulk
of them going TO ST. Louis. Recently,
however. the importations from the
Antipodes have so slackened that the
manufacturers are appealing 10 Cali
So. +t,NY. J. lHS~