WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 22 June 1928, Page 4

WELLINGTON NEWS

ANGORA WOOL RABBITS.

(Special to “ Guardian.”)

WELLINGTON, June 20.

The law in New Zealand prohibits the importation and farming of rabbits, but there are rabbits and rabbits, and a strong plea is made by Mr Arthur Sainsbury, F.It.H.S., for the importation of the Angora wool rabbit, which can bo farmed on commercial lilies and profitably. The Angora was developed in France for its wool clip, and since the war it has been greatly improved by the clever breeders of France and Great Britain, until to-day its wool yield exceeds in value that of an average sheep, which costs ten times as much to maintain. Mr Sainsbury has written what might be termed a text book at all events, armed with tile information contained therein a novice can be successful in farming the Angora rabbit. It is stated that the average annual wool yield of a properly bred and fed Angora rabbit is about 10oz per annum. The Derwent Mills, Ltd., Matlock, Derbyshire, who are the principal, if not the only buyers of this class of wool, are paying 36s per lb, or roughly 2s per ounce. Among the pioneers of the Angora rabbit wool industry of Great Britain the Lady Rachel Byng must be placed at the top. She maintains a flock of 1000 rabbits close to the Royal grounds at Windsor, and has a large class of cadets learning.

The extraordinary fineness and softness of Angora rabbit wool cannot bo imitated. It is principally used for under wear, particularly for cherished infants and women. But men’s felt hats of high, quality and men’s underwear also demand increasing quantities. Wherever warmth, lightness and softness of touch, are desired there the Angora rabbit fleece is indispensable. The spun yarn of the Angora, rabbit wool is retailed at about 4s per ounce, or about 60s xier lb, and it is washable. *Tho rabbit is first shorn near weaning time, when about 6 or 8 weeks old. The wool, if left unshorn for a whole year, grows to a length of about 0 inches. To keep this length of wool . clean and unmatted would be laborious, and the spinners do not demand such a long staple as they can spin a very nice product from wool that is about 3 inches long. Hence rabbitkeepers shear about four times a year. Shearing is usually done with sharp blunt-ended scissors. The wool grows rapidly up to a length of 2.} or 3 inches and then more slowly. It therefore is economical to shear at that length. The fleeCo when shorn is folded neatly, laid in a dry metallined box and kept carefully covered from dust, to accumulate for marketing. Mr Sainsbury ridicules the idea that the industry would increase the wild rabbit pest. The improved Angora rabbit, worth at least £l, is too valuable to set loose. It is too tame, and also too slow to run away from danger. It is white and therefore doomed immediately it encounters a boy, a dog, a gunman, or a hawk. With its, long ungainly wool to cloy with dirt this hapless manufactured creature is quite unfitted to the dirty conditions of the burrows. The farming of Angora rabbits can be carried on in backyard hutches or on a 26acre holding. A French estimate has it Hint 500 rabbits can be kept on half an acre. For. small operations the small section is suitable. In Britain there are large r numbers of rnhbitries with about 50 rabbits in each.

Where large scale work is intended five or moro acres are desirable. The work comprises the following among-other duties: Mating and retesting the does and keeping their records ; attending to the special requirements of young stock; weaning and separating the young; cleaning out the hutches; providing the food for the rabbits; grooming perhaps a tenth of .the stock daily; making hutches or repairing them, and .selling the wool, stud stock and surplus stock. It has keen estimated that a woman with the help of a hoy for part of the dayman manage 300 rabbits, and that a man and a woman can manage 1000. Besides the wool of the Angora rabbit there is the meat, and Bulletin 1090 of the U.S.A. Department of Agriculture points out that rabbit meat is the best meat of all. It is the most nitrogenous of all, fatter than chicken and twice as rich in the valuable mineral elements as any other meat. Unless the law relating to rabbit-keeping is revoked Or amended nothing can be done in the Dominion in respect to this new industry.