AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL. NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2263, 15 July 1897, Page 22

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL. NEWS.

The Winfcon Agricultural and Pastoral Asmciation decided to a^k the Government to advertise that the general poisoning of rabbits should commence on the 20th July, and in ar>y case nob later than the Ist August. A few days ago the numbar of rabbitskina paid for by the Stock department at Kihikihi (Waikato) was about 5500, an increase of more than double the number brought in by the Natives on the pay day previous. We (Mataura Ensign)* hear that some 60 sheep on Mr Johu Cameron's firm, Wendonside, have died through eating pollard poison, which was distributed over the property by some unknown miscreant. The v question, "Does trapping exterminate the rabbits ? " is answered distinctly in the affirmative by one station manager in the Tuturau district, and we believe his experience is not altogether a solitary one. The gcntlemtn in question informs us that at the beginning of th 6" reason he divided the property under his charge into sections, and (rapping has been pursued with such vigour thao the ,two men in charge of one of the blocks recently reported that they had only secured 14 rabbits for two days' work, and Intended throwing up the job as there ' ' was nothing in it." Asked if a bonus of & shilling per rabbit would induce them to stay on, the men replied in the negative; they could not make " tucker," even on these terms. There are some 5000 acres in the run in question, which not so very long ago wss noted as beibg infested with rabbits, and is now practically clear. The manager in question it, needless to say, a firm believer in the trapping system as the true solution of the rabbit problem, and holds that had his neighbours done as he did bunny would have been practically exterminated over the whole of the adjoining country. — Mataura Ensign. Swarms of corn bugs have made their appearance in the Mudgee district, N.S.W., and cover the trees and fences.