BR'ER RABBIT.

Shannon News, 8 July 1924, Page 4

BR'ER RABBIT.

1 MEETING TIIE PROBLEM.' SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS IN THE WAIKATO.

Particulars of the successful operations of the Rabbit Boards in the Waikato district are published by the Auckland “Herald." Although Auckland province has not yet suffered rabbit devastation to the same degree as portions of Otago, Canterbury, ana Marlborough, the , menace is,fax-more.. serious than is generally recognised. In a few districts, notably Te Awamutu, the problem, has been.. within the last three or four years with great energy, and wonderful; success has been achieved; success, indeed, chat has staggered men who have made the rabbit problem a special study. Over 8000 acres on the east side of Te Awamutu, and a similar area on the western side, where three years ago rabbits flourished in countless hordes, hardly a rabbit is to Bb seen to-day. This splendid, condition of affairs is being maintained afc,surprisingly- small cost. The secret afauocess was the formation of -Rabbit Boards instead of one man’s neglect undoing the work of ; his neighbour. The campaign was carried on from farm to farm, and ,back again,, and in one area rabbits are npw so rare that one rabbiter employed is finding it difficult to secure sufficient to feed his pack of dogs. One resident of Te Awaroutu is prepared to pay one- shilling for every rabbit above . Six- ; that anyone counts along the eight miles?of~ road toward Pirongia. Formerly-the sides of this road were little lessCEan ' one continuous warren. Mr D. Munro, of the Live -Btock Division of the Department of Agriculture, who has been fighting, rabbits in variops parts' of the Dominion lor 30 years, has shown years it is possible for a pair of rabbits to found a family of over nine and a half millions, assuming that the average litter is six. He calcula'cesthat in one year 534 rabbits can be produced from one pair, for the doe "produces eight litters a year, and the doe breeds at the age of 15 weeks 1 . 'He assumes that half of each litter are does, and that 50 per cent, become casualties. Yet on this basis ‘the computation gives a total of at the end of three years. ’ hfany eminent scientists support figures”even greater than this. If onlv one-tentii of *tlic rabbits survive the ‘.cost ,-Of' infested districts to the Dominion would

be colossal, for 40 rabbits eat \snd. destroy grass sufficien co maintain . a cow ,