The Rabbit in California.

Hastings Standard, Issue 99, 20 August 1896, Page 4

The Rabbit in California.

Among the several points which America and Australia have in common are two which both countries could well afford to do without, the sparrow and the rabbit pests. We all know what the sparrow pest means out here, and all over the States the cheeky little bird is getting to be as übiquitous a nuisance. Apart from his ordinary crimes, he is charged there with harrying the native American birds so fiercely that the latter are giving up the battle in disgust and are retiring to those districts where the feathered ruffian is not yet all powerful. The rabbit appears to be most destructive in California, where the plague is assuming proportions which almost invite comparison with the state of things in these colonies, and particularly in Australia. One gathers from the remarks in American papers on this subject that the writers do not quite know whether to be pleased or sorry for the increase in the rabbit pest. They evidently do not like it from a financial point of view, but, on the other hand, they do not seem to enjoy the knowledge that Australia beats the United States in one thing at least. In this case, however, financial considerations will probably outweigh those of sentiment. Already California has adopted, with moderate success, some Australian methods of thinning out the rabbits, and it is beginning to be impressed upon those chiefly interested that close fencing is the first essential towards the suppression of the nuisance, which cost the farmers in one country alone in California last year over £IOO,OOO. Hitherto the farmers have pinned their faith to, or at least contentented themselves with holding what are called round-up hunts or drives. In these the rabbits in a large piece of country are- gradually driven into a fenced enclosure, where they are dealt with \\ith the utmost ricror of the law by being clubbed to death. It is estimated that 140 of the: 1 drives have been held in California, ami that they have resulted in the killing of 856,000 rabbits, which is a mere drop in the ocean when the number that are left alive is considered.