STOATS AND WEASELS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2604, 21 May 1887, Page 2

STOATS AND WEASELS.

The following iiitorviow of the Christchuich Press reporter \vith Mr Allbones,' a man with an extensive experiencfe on the subject, and who lately arrived in New Zealand by the Doric will be of groat interest to the people of this district ; ..Mr Allbones received our reporter

with that courtesy which-is over the mark of the truly groat in any profession, and on learning the business obligingly proceeded to explain his views, " You will get nothing bettor, for rabbits than stoats and weasels. Every timo : they want a feed thoy kill a fresh rabbit, and when they're hauling, if they light upon a nest of ten-young'ones,' thoy. Mil them all. They eat nothing dead,, not even, a

pigeon that dies itself,'.though they are very fond of pigeons. But they'll never come near buildings and therd's, nothing to be feared from them, either. Ifor children or poultry.- Its novel" been 'blown of them to come near buildings; they're tod wild, and you couldn't hunt, them in, aiid they haven't any taste for-poultry, : . I pulled a white stoat —that'js a. winter.stoat—out of a stack on a farm. in,.Lincolnshire, and the poultry used- to be feeding round that' stack, but tlje stoat had been coming and going for a long whilo, and the

fanner-had Dover lost a single fowl." To an inquiry abouttho possibility . of the vermin multiplying and being forced by over crowding to look for sustenance down country, Mr Allbones replied—" There won't be any overcrowding with them. If there were, they're very : soon trapped off if you want to trap t:;om off, But they dont incroasp very fast. For one thing their life's but three years, for they woar out their pin teeth cracking tho rabbit's skull, Tlioy strike just behind tho oaiyso as to out tho jugular vein, and thojrteoth strike the bono and wearaway quickly, for they're a regular needle point. And fchon tho young onos are six weeks before thoy can see, Npthoy'llnovorget too plentiful. I know a place in Leicestershire whore thoy've novor killed since they began. They keep a lotto kill tho rats and rabbits, but the stoats never kill poultry; and when thoy can't get rabbits they kill 0110 anothor—ayo and eat ono'. another too, I've scon one stoat kill another and eat him all, and when you went to pick him up there was nothing but the skin opened, from end to end and strotched out flat. Keep them in boxes, and I've known them eat one another all but tho tail. " Now the ferrot's different. It was a ferret that bit that child I hoar talk about-down South. A ferret'* good for nothing, won't stay out, and always comes back, to the buildings, and when its prowling about it'll eat any mortal thing. It wants handling every day .to koep'it reasonable. And then it's more like a cat; its delicate and must have shelter, so of -course it comes to tbo.-,hoinestoad," You don't want ferrets but you must have stoats and , weasels' for rabbit infestod runs. They would keop tho rabbits down, Mr Swailos of Bawby, in Lincolnshire, had a stoat among his rabbits last year, and he hardly had a rabbit to shoot,"

" That was among burrows Mr Allbonos; will they bo as successful with the rabbits bore, that nest in a tussock on the hillside ?" "That they will; they're always travelling, aro stoats, and they'll catch a haro. The hare can can nover got awayifrom them, though sho runs through hedges, and they bite dowii •through the top of the head till they kill her; and they never take more 'than just tho'blood.". '" Hard weather kill them in the ranges ? Not much. We get snow at Homo that lies for weeks, and melts and freezps till its. all ice. But you don't find stoats and wpasels the scarcer for it," 7 ' Our reporter asked about the number imported. "My son has brought over five shipments," said Mr Allbo'nes, " mailing 1160 stoats and weasels', and: there was anothov shipment for-; Mr Kilchey, of Bnshcy Park, I think, of which most were drowned. For a shipment of 300 you want 4000 pigeons to be used-on the voyage, and that will'give you an idea of the way they' would destroy the rabbits where they wore thick. I had to go to Antwerp for tho .pigeons—couldn't have got them in Englandior anything, like areasonable price—and I bought them there for 8d a piece easily enough,

'Ji

But they'd have thought I j if I'd asked for that number at Home.,;"• v ,'- They would come to about 10(1 a piece; ;'■; with the shipping charges.". >; ;"'.-;• "I paid 4s Gd apiece for;weasels,. ' : and on carriage,reckoning an average I '•'' as Ipaid the carriage whether they :';■ ' , v carao from far oniear. I advertised'-.'-; ■•'•' in the Daily Telegraph, and-the; York-:; : sliire.Post so geUtknowri- ; eyery- v ."■where, and spmepnejiit itiin theiField, butldon't kMw,-.-who;, At ; 4 ::-. thought it was a-boax, b'iii'byer'and-bye ;1; - : they, began to senclthem feme.;; Tile.;:-;,/:, lumber I had of the. cases. :^; ■'•' in was abjnetliihg wouldn't handle v thein.;'^hd:-;tU6|l^i^;'': .-'■ shove.them into an old'bdx .' lag pot, or kerpsiue. tin, oiv : »T . handy, and send thqin.in just hundled ;.'T" out of the trap'.they were Caught 'in. .-,' ■'pPho trap was a box trapplticell in: -.'■-' jtlie hedge, for they,alpys ran-alio'iit the hedge, and tliero's'a;spriiVg which "."■ ■' -Jf takes them as.they.inuvaud lands" thon'i ••. safoly hi the bpx,] ; Well conse 1 * quenco' was that many of thein .We're maimed or damaged. •'.. iuscd to look :at every one—catch, him _bpli|ifd head and hold his hind feof, andsoiijetimes he'd-have lost ah eye. or' ft.'.log:, ; and -sometimes his teeth would -be nearly done. Ipaid 6s;apiece|or stoats, so that they hM to be'.in'g&od coudition for me to accept theni.','.' ■' .. I built a great shed fe pack theni in fitted all round' '. with,.' steWos; ■ hacLto bejined with MeifoVthefd soon gnaw' a Jiolp big 6nougli'iE6rtll§'m ■to get out of,-and tho Company' ; wouid . not ship them without; The ffisfc'lot of boxes cost l(5s; afterwards thought S& ' tho material and got them made up; and W> they came to lis Gd. They have' .be made with fixings so that they 'can bo kept clean. ■/ ' ■•';•■■ xT_ '• There arc. not many men iir'tlie ■ business, and it in not ovorybody who can manage it. You see it takes a bit of scholarship to buy all that material and miiko all'the arrangements." And Mr Allboiios; shows our reporter with pride a letter signed by Mr Walter ; Kenna\vay> > sec- -. retary of the Agent - Geiieral's oifico testifying ■ to. the :; wfftithfulness and ability with -which- hi 3 work has been dono. '"'l havo*' been all my life at this sort of work," he continues. "lam a vermin destroyer for a number of largo estates, ; including -Lord YarboroughVostate,- 'Brock-loaby-Eark. At pre'sont there'-are no J shipmonts coming out, but I had an I enquiry whether I could got more, and $; I said I could."- .•■ ■ M Rumour has stated {hatv'-Mr-All. If bones could speak comforting -things f$ about the .sparrow- post; -'but on _ tM ngM enquiry it appears that h Q couraged by the snow'not lyiug', down country.' ..'Ut'hoiiie/" ho sSBJr . ; -: " hi snowy weather the bifds allcome down to; the corn yard,'' v 'yott.first drive, all the fowls in ■' and peiv- thorn, and thon put' down qu'3«fcifcie^bf'grain . .poisoned with strychnine.; ~"■ Tho birds .take one grain, 'stiffen, -and 'turn their toes up..; Af.;envard3.you'. may: sweep them up in pecks, and clear- up .at the same tira'o what grain tliey didn't oaj,, Theu you jet the'fowls"-out." At pwsentv'Mr Alibmieo'can': rqcf-rnDiend nothing but catching by night in tlw hedges with aelap net, such as is used in bat folding; '...--.Ho can make nets, and this method'He proposes to try.