RABBIT DESTRUCTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, 20 July 1925, Page 3

RABBIT DESTRUCTION.

A NEW METHOD,

| A new and highly successful system i of poisoning rabbits was how Mr Horn | (Wakatipu) described it, _ when lie i asked the Minister of Agriculture in the House of Representatives whether he would instruct the officers of the ! Department to get in touch with a ■young man named Tate, who had ; invented a new method. This young man had discovered that applying strychnine to thistles was the most fatal method ever .applied of killing rabbits. Thistles were the natural food of rabbits at this time of the year, and if the strychnin© was applied to the lower stems of the plant it would make an absolute clearance of rabbits loundabout. The inventor of the method would give a demonstration to the inspectors of the Department. There were, added Mr Horn, plenty of buyers for rabbitskins just now. The Minister replied that he would bo pleased to instruct the officers of his Department to get into touch with Mr Tate, and prove or disprove the efficacy of the method. “I will point out, however,” .added Mr Nosworthy, “that if you are going to poison thistles_ m the high country, you are also going io poison the sheep thereon, because the sheep, too, are feeding mainly on thistles at this time of the year.”