A RABBIT YARN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 451, 27 March 1912, Page 7

A RABBIT YARN.

Some 20 or 30 years ago a certaia lighthouse keeper, recently come to W~— Lighthouse a few miles north of Yarmouth, on getting settled, thought it would be advantageous to him to turn a bit of the sand warren attached to the premises into a vegetable garden. Accordingly he set to work, and having delved it into the semblance of a garden patch proceeded to plant it. For the first few days the young vegetables promised to flourish in their new quarters, and the "bunnies" on the adjacent warren had not got over their surprise and the fear of committing trespass. But one morning the lighthouse keeper came to his garden to find that something in the nature of a blight had visited one corner during the night. Somewhat puzzled ho re-planted the ground, but nest night more of his tender vegetables vanished, and he was still further puzzled. He dug, manured, and planted again, but with like result. He asked the village folk, who smiled, and naturally suggested "rabbits!" The keeper watched, and found it was so. He complained to H , the lord of the manor, and asked him to keep off the rabits.

"If you wish to grow greenstufis," said the lord of the manor, "fence your garden in yourself !" This the keeper did not see his way to do, but set to work on a much harder if less expensive plan. He. dug a trench two feet wide, and three feet in depth all round the garden, hoping that it would be a sufficient barrier against the marauding rodents. One morning after he had completed his trench he visited it, and to his great surprise found a large number of rabbits prisoners therein. They had got, in but could not get out. I am informed there were over one hundred animals trapped. These he managed to kill and find a market for. "All right !" said the lighthousekeeper, "this'll do ! it's better thai a fence." And he managed to dispose of 700 rabbits before the lord of the manor discovered his loss, and the cause o: the cessation of complaints. H was one day surveying his warren when he espied the keeper acting in a strange and excited manner, and came up to the edge of the trench. "Why man ! What's this ?" he gasped. You're clearing my warren ?" '"l'm content," replied the light house keeper, still knocking the rabbits on the head, as he pushed a big box in front of him and stowing the rabbits in as he went on. "If you want to keep the rabbits, you'd better fence them in !" And so H did, for he immediately ordered some rolls of wire netting, burying three feet of it below the surface, and raising it several feet above, all round the garden ! From "Wild Life in a Norfolk Es tuary,"