A Rabbit Drive.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14056, 13 November 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

A Rabbit Drive.

, , ~ ♦ — ■■ — ■" ■ AN AMERICAN NOTION. California has its rabbit pest as well as Australia and Now Zealand. A very granitic account of a rabbit drive in. a California.!! valley appears' in the "Wide AVcrld." ' -Rabbits had descended on the valley, and swept some of, it clean. Acres of .green feed were laid bare in a 'night, and carcases' of. starved cattle lay about the of>en scrub. The strir.'kcu ratic.Vrs cried out for help, and the anneal was qiiiclfly answered. A holiday was declared, and every rancher in the valley and men from the' nearest town, '{tinned out to fight the pest. The campaign was carefully planned. A huge ysbaood trap was formed of a fence, with wirp-t"»ltina: stretched ovey'iits mile-long sides, so that no rabbit could b-eak through. >A hundred yar'ds.fWJiii the ancs ."'t'other fence ran. V. with the eS,—option of ijwp; spacos e--h '«f four feet "at the pfufs. The. t<-i»n.-to so formed , was tlie ~'death-, '•'••••t.tbpr. Lines of heaters, horse and foot. ">nkiu|i hideous noise with yells and sticks on tin-cans, moved throti"''i the hush towards the tra» to drive'the. ralVbits before them. The 'HiriinuVls' c'inie ot't in hundreds and then, .in thousand*. Before lout the brush snouted grey' bodies. Tlie va'it, turned "lid changed .'"Tess tlie field, antl ' the' leaders "struck the stout;.fence with;"a r-'->sli that wide'"the wires ring, while the posts bent and gave under the terrifi- pressure." .'■ The front row hevei 1 ' '""Y 0< 1 "»>"■•''.'n. On '(»ioi { . ; the bbntersr killing with thc'i-stiVks every 'rabbit within re-'cli. and driving the rest'hitu the norrnl at " tlie. tfnex of .the'.field. .Inp'dq. f.V ei«"losure +lm terrified nninl'ak raced a'»nit o' - killed' themselves "f-'itist the sides, Layer oh lnvPr of bodies rore »<'aiiist the'foncc.- urftil the "nards onts'dp h"d t" mish them back to'nrovetit +hc" l Tormirirf-1 pathway to s-'fet-- for the living rnbbils behind. In the last Ff'-piio of', "fcliV*"" drama men .charmed into tl'o <wvnl, and. amid a elnnd rt dust In id ' ' the»» with st-'kh until no life was left. Ui't wlvn. all .w<« -"•<»• and the dn-t 1,,, d -"tied. " rnhhit Ivitt" iii the Twiddle ~<-f tl>e encb-Kui-e lumped im ;"id-, l'Jl.""d wilfiiv rood l-"k!" yelle'i s'-n>ennp : . r IV rrr was t-ake-i utt. "»d the *.""'iy"'- lo'-' - ' 1 weak 1 -" tltr><ui'h fho ennned ' r'itt'e.' t'V.d set off across r«un+"v !>.*•'si. "■dlor*. '* n th? accnnipr-'-'iieoiit .of vol's o f P.neoV' - "rr"rabbits northed ''••■ tin'*.' dr"""--' A -'.'vd descripti<"i'.(if- a, "Rabbit Ortv" !« -"ivoii '" an American -work of fiction. "T'ic Oete.i"-." ; ! ThO >\™ o*- 0 *- can'rablvls are n-t e,-s. or !,'""• v"iild. v-'unly bb.dnvcn home to their liurrows; ."' n . . ,