ACRES OF RABBITS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 960, 1 May 1930, Page 16

ACRES OF RABBITS

Chinchillas Prosper on Rakino Island AN ENTERPRISING FARMER *‘l have acres of chinchillas,” was the smiling reply of Mr. Gilbert Sanford, of Rakino Island, when asked whether the new Idea of rabbit-farm-ing appealed to him. Rakino Island, behind Motutapu, is a little kingdom free from many of the legal restrictions that hedge land ownership on the mainland. “When Mr. Stanford decided to engage in rabbitfarming he could do almost as he wished. In his first venture with the peltyielding bunny Mr. Sanford expended £SOO, building quite a little “close settlement for rabbits,” as he phrased it. He soon learned, however, that the cost of maintaining rabbits in hutches was prohibitive, so lie fenced in an area of six acres with rabbitproof fencing and turned his stock of chinchillas out to forage for themselves. The experiment has been highly successful, and this winter Mr. Sanford expects to be able to top the chinchilla skin market both in quality and quantity. Chinchilla is not the only variety of rabbit flourishing on the island. Last week the proprietor harvested 800 skins from the ordinary grey rabbits that have been established there for 25 years, and the rabbit population has not been sensibly diminished. Poisoning was the method adopted.