RABBIT FARMING.

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume I, Issue 1, 12 August 1932, Page 10

RABBIT FARMING.

NOTES FOR BREEDERS.

[By “ Coney Seal ”] This column will be conducted every week by an expert for the benefit of those interested in rabbits commercially. Correspondence will be answered and advice given if queries are clearly addressed to “ Coney Seal,” c/o the “ North Canterbury Gazette,” Rangiora 'J’HE very word “rabbit” has in New Zealand been regarded with such suspicion for so many years that although most people have always had a hazy notion that rabbits were regarded as a source of profit to breeders on the other side of the world, they could see no prospect of their being anything but a pest in this country. This of course was largely due to the fact that the rabbit was always visualised as the common grey or the white pet. All of us know that much of the fur wear sold under fancy names t#ts originally rabbit, but there has always been so wide a margin between the price of. the natui'al pelt and the finished article that there seemed no hope of the pelter being farmed profitably. Who, without seeing the present product of scientific breeding, could have pictured the white pet of childhood’s days developed into a woolproducer capable of giving over 4 ozs. of wool valued at 30/- per pound in one shearing of four months growth: lor who, pricing a coney seal or stone marten coat at from 40 to 100 guineas, could imagine close imitations of those beautiful skins growing naturally on the once despised rabbit?

Yet these things have come to pass, a bunny will now produce furs to imitate almost all the expensive kinds which the ladies of New Zealand love, or wool which, while conforming to all the requirements of clothing material', will so nearly approach the feel of silk as to satisfy the most delicate and fastidious of wearers. When one has seen the commercial {rabbit of the present day it is not so difficult to look ahead and see that, with the aid of? science and perseverance, a great future may be ahead of the industry. Perseverance on behalf of a few enthusiasts in New Zealand has not been lacking, but up to the present we have been profiting by the scientific results obtained in the Mother Country and have yet to engage in research work on our own account. Let us hope that this blunder will not be perpetuated, since without knowledge progress must necessarily be restricted.

The object of the writer of these notes Avill have been achieved if He has diverted the ei rabbit ” mind of the reader from the wild animal of the sportsman; the pest of the backcountry farmer to the dainty hutchbred product of the commercial rabbitfarmer’s care and personal attention. Henceforth in these articles, “Rabbit is our butch-bred friend, and for us the wild grey has no place. Let the Rabbit Boards use their full power in the suppression of him, their enemy, but let them leave our friends alone. Their interests and ours are not antagonistic, but the same, and as the useless pest decreases, so may our profit-making friends increase and add to the wealth of their owners and the country. Next week’s article will deal briefly with the history and progress of rabbitfarming in New Zealand and the present state o>f organisation.