RABBIT-FENCES AND FRUITTREES PROTECTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 164, 20 May 1879, Page 2

RABBIT-FENCES AND FRUITTREES PROTECTION.

A writer in " The Garden" saysl am afraid we rather underrate the rabbit's powers of leaping, a question which determines, to some extent, what sort of fonce will be required to koep them out of places where they are not wanted, I have .seen a rabbit jump up upon the top of a .stone fence 3ft. high, and jumpdown on the other side, and it had not been driven or frightened in any way. To test their abilities in getting over a wire fence, I enclosed some young wild rabbits about a month old, and just tame enough not be frightened at any one's presence, within a ring fence of galvanized wire, 2-i-ft. high, set up (villi stakes on the grass in front of my house. They were hardly two hours in this beforo they were out again; they were put back over and over again, always with the same result. They scrambled up the wire like a cat, and let themselves tumble over on the outside. Whether rabbits would act in the same way, if they wanted to get to a place, I do not know, but it is quite possible they would, if pressed for food, The suggestion to lay a piece of wire flat_ on the, "round in erecting wire fences is a good one, but it is better simply to bend a piece of the upright sheet of wire out tnan to put down a separate piece, as holes are apt to be made at the junction. Such a fence is better than a stone wall. Rabbits aro sometimes very troublesome in orchards during severe winters, gnawing the bark off the steins of trees and killing them, In such cases, when the trees are not over numerous, wrapping the stems round with paper, just a little higher than tho rabbits can reach by standing on their hind legs, will be found an excellent and perfectly effectual preventive. The paper should be tied on pretty securely, othcrwiso the winds and rain will tear it off.