HARES FOR SOLDIERS

Nelson Evening Mail, 21 September 1916, Page 6

HARES FOR SOLDIERS

GETTING RID OF THE PEST.

"I know of one district which sent away 1500 hares for the wounded soldiers in England, and there are still hundreds of the pests running about," says "Agricola" in the Farmers' Union Advicate. "They are more destructive than rabbits, and more difficult in some ways to get rid of. Orchards have been spoiled by them. They have a distinct preference for the bark of apple-trees, and will pass good feed to partake of it. Gardens and plantations have to be netted-in just as much as a protection against bares as against ra'bbits. In connection with the latter, there has been some systematic destruction employed everywhere, and and they have been thinned out during the winter. Those that escaped are again breeding, and young, half-grown ones may be seen about the river-beds and plantations. Dry seasons favour the spread of this pest. The river-beds act as nurseries for them, the ground being loamy and easily "burrowed, while the gorseand broome gives adequate shelter. A big flood would reduce them by the thousand. In some parts the Government is being asked to do more in the direction of dogging and shooting on Grown lands and reserves. Poisnning effects a world of good, but ft must be followed up by other methods, as more than one or at most, two poisonings a year are useless. The rabbits get too cunning if fed on poisoned pollard too often."