The Savannah morning news., 1904-06-12
CANNED JACK RABBITS NOW.
Their Use for Food May Save Mil
lions of Dollars.
From the Brooklyn ,;ogle.

From the Brooklyn hiagle.
The Western genius who discovered
that there is a market for canned jack
rabbit has probably sounded the death
knell of the long-legged, -ong-eared,
swift-running creature that has so long
been picturesque denizen of the
prairie. The first canning factory has
been established at Echo. Ore, and
thousands of jack rabbits are slaugh-
tered in that vicinity every month to
keep pace with the demand for this new
article Of food. Other canneries are
TO be established in the West soon, and
the jack will have no range that he
can call his own.
Not that the jack rabbit has ever
been free from the persecution of man.
He has been hunted in various ways
and for various purposes, but chiefly
sport. In California, Colorado and
nearly every Western state where fruit
is grown fruit growers wage a relent-
less war on jack rabbits because of the
destructive habits of the animal. Jack
rabbits have been known to destroy
huge orchards by girdling .he trees,
and for this reason they are under the
ban of the fruit growers In Kansas,
Nebraska, Colorado. California, and
the DakotaS the sport of coursing has
taken firm hold on a Fargo part of the
public, and this also results in the
death of thousands of jack rabbits an
nually. In spite of these forms of
slaughter, however, and IL spite of
huge round-ups which have been held
to give the ranch population holiday
and to combine pleasure with business,
the jack-rabbit tribe has continued to
increase. and It is estimated that they
are nearly as plentiful now as in the
earliest days of the West. There is lit
tie doubt, however, that the systematic
hunting of the Jack rabbit for mar
ket purposes will soon make inroads
on the tribe, and in time the jack may
become as extinct as the buffalo
A jack rabbit roundup in the West
is fun of interest to the uninitiatei
spectator, although it is apt to be any
thing but pleasant when the actual
slaughter of the animals begins. A
huge circle of hunters is formed. miles
in circumference. and an Enclosure.
built of woven wire so high that no
jack rabbit could jump over. is the
objective point of the hunt. From the
entrance to this Enclosure extend two
fence. broadening out as they leave
the corral. Into this wedge-!ike space
the rabbits are to be driven, after which
thew will naturally run into the cor
raj as tho only exit in sight. there
to he slaughtered at the leisure of the
hunters.
A hunt of this sort on sage brush
prairies. where rabbits are plentiful
will result in soaring up thousands of
jacks. At recent hunt near the
canning factory at Echo, Ore, over
5000 American hares were killed and
two coyotes were caught. 1t is esti-
mated that as many rabbits escaped
as were killed, on account of the thin
line formed by the hunters
The sight of the leapng rabbits
rush into the corral. driven by the
shouting hunters at their rear. is re-
markable. The big jacks are terri
fed. and as they rush into the en-
trance of the corral at top speed their
crowding, struggling forms are almost
entirely hidden by the dust. Once in
the corral they rush hither and thth-
er in a frantic effort to escape They
leap high against the fence and others
try 10 burrow under the wire. An oc-
casional coyote who is trapped with the
rabbits Is also too frightened 10 do
anything but try 20 escape. He makes
no effort 70 XIII the rabbits. despite
the fact that a Jack is the choicest
food OF which he knows. When the
last rabbit has been drawn into the
Enclosure the gate h. closed and then
the hunters enter with clubs and begin