RABBITS AS FOOD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1140, 7 March 1884, Page 3

RABBITS AS FOOD.

Mdny years have elapsed (says the European Mail) since Mr 0 ke. o, ,Nu folk, ihe fatucr o ilio peso.it K.idol Luiccsti r, pronouncel the rule of a great Engli li ’nnill-ii-l nV r liis tenant-*, i-o'taper-, an finii Inbou en to he "a in hi ms .‘Haiti temp j re Iwr hj rabbits." .livery trace of 'leap'tism in the relations existing between the lord of the soil and hia depen lents h.a now pisael away, ana with it the rabbits, which were once employed to conciliate goodwill tow mis the donor, aeem not unlikely t> pass aw ay also. It, was litte f ncS'jon, when Sir Willi».n Harcourt st-ried hia Ground Game Bdl that Us first etfeets would be to re luce the stock of hares and rabbits in the United Kiualom to such an extent that gloomy prophecies are already indulge 1 in that, before many years the former will disaopear altogether, and the latter he fonn I only in artificiallypreserved warrens. Tim: was, some thirty or forty years sine-, when a couple of rabbits were sol.l retail in the London streets for fonrteenpiince. Three years ago they could be bought for tenpeuee, or at most one shilling a piece, and now it is almost impossible to buy a good specimen for less than one and ninepence o- two shillings. It is not generally known that no meat is more in request amongst the poorest of the Lon lon population than that of the furry little rodent, whose amazing powers of seif-reproduction have lately made him the terra- of oiir Australian colonies. Rabbit pie is, aceording to Lord Malmes bnry, the favourite Sunday dinner of the East End, and still more so of the busy and grimy inhabitants ot what is called the black country. That there shoul I be any danger of the extinction in theie islands of that “ nimble skipping little animal,” whose very name Lord Granville once hesitated to mention in a House of Lords debate, seems so remote a probability that the.re is as yet no need to contemplate it ' with alarm. Yet the priceat which ra .bits are now sold is a suggestive warning, and it seems incomprehensible that, while every colony of the Australasian group is sorely perplexed with the difficulty of ke-ping down the numbers of these swarming pests, human ingenuity should not have contrived before this to flood the English market with Australian conies. “ Where money is to bn made," says Adam Smith, “capital will soon find its way; “and it is easy to demons'rate that a large profit seems to await the enterp- ising shipper who transfers deal rabbits in large numbers from Mel bourne, Sydney, Adelaide. Brisbane, Wellington, Auckland, and Launceston to the Thames or the Mersey. Apart from the value of the flesh, rabbit skins have a regular commercial value, in consequence of the hair being well adapted for felling purposes. It is chiefly employed for making the bodies or crowns of felt hats, and their manufacture is now effected by machinery of a very ingenious construction. “It consists," writes an expert in the trade, “of a hollow cone of copper, of the size of the felt cones required by batters. The copper co ie is covered with perforations, and it fits on to a metal shaft by means of a collar, which can he turned .ound by a band, so as to carry the perforated cone with it. At the bottom of the metal shaft is a fan moved by machinery, which produces a strong draft, so that the hairs thrown agarust the cone a e he'd tightly I y the current air through the perforation*. As tin- cone revolves its outer surface bocotn-s entirely coat-d with rabbit hair. When a -sulii dent thickness is obtained the smooth copper conn is drawn out, leaving a cone of wool, which is felted by the usual process of wetting and bea- - ing." After the hair has been removed the skins are sold to ihe glnemnkers, and used in the ma .utacture of glue and size. But, in addition the skins of rabbits ire dressed as furs, to supply the am .zing demand for cheap coats, wais'coats, and cloaks which has sprung up throughout the civilised world. “So skilfully," adds the same authority from whom we haie already quoted, “ is this branch of trade carried on at p; erect that nd-n rle imititiona of the rarer ai d more costly turs are made. Thus ermine and miniver are compounded from white rabbits skius, the black ones fu nish ing the spots or tails ; and the common varie y is drssse I and dyed in various ways, to represent the furs of dark co mired animals.” The charter of the Skinners’ Company shows that in the reign of Henry VIII. rabbit fur possessed a high value, a id was worn by the greatest nobles of the realm. In our own times the hats of working men, the sombrero of the Spaniard, and the head-dress ot soldiers, who, like the “cacoiatori” and “ hersaglieri” of Italy, wear felt, are made from the humble cony’s skin, while for the cheap imitation furs, in the preparation of which the same materials are employed, the demand is increasing in all countries where the winter is severe, so that we have little difficulty in believing that the manufacture is still in its infancy.

Enough, we hope, has been said to inflame the cupidity of our Australian kinsmen, - who are at their wits’ end to know what to do with the teeming armies of rabid's which swarm and multiply with inconceivable f eundity in their dry and dusty plains. The last report of the New Zealand Agricultural Society reveal-, for instance, tha: i s managers hare found it necessary to resort to the wholesale use of poison in order to prevent tbeir crops from being entir ly destroyed. There we read that during the three years which ended in Oc oher last more than 500,00011)3. of poisoned oats were scattered over the company’s esta'e, with the result that nearly three millions of skins were picked up ami broncht to market. As it is certain that millions o' poisoned’rabhifs die in their holes, leavinc no traces behind them, we may infer wha' incalculable numbers of conies exist in Australia, and what an amount of damage they inflict upon the farmers of that sunny and productive island continent. Can nothing b > done to pour a large and steady supply of dead Australian rabbi's into the markets of the United Kingdom ? Thera ia growing prejudic° in this country against tinned meats and tinned fish of all kinds, nor can it he doubted that the opinion of our medical mra is adverse to the. consu np tton of food which has been tainted by the oxidation ■ f the metal in which it is cnrosed. Snrih. however, are the nnn-ove-ments as regards economy ami eflici ncy which have lately been introduced in the preparation of frozen chambers on hoard ship that the time is, we hone, not far distant when rabbit boats will ho built on a large sca'e in order to convey millions of these favourite little quadrupeds to this meat-consuming country. It is, moreover, worthy of remark, that no animal answering pi ecisely to the European and Australian rabbit is to he foun I throu.-hog' the vast dimensions of the North American continent. In aMition to Europe, we. doubt not that the American markets would gladly ah-orb an immense amount of dead Australian conies. The time has surely come for our enterprising fellow subjects at the Antipodes seriously to consider whether they cannot turn the furry little qna Irupeds which they possess in i such inconvenient abundance to some | account by shipping them to foreign connI tiies,instead of poisoning them in the holes.