Nuttall's patent Rabbit and Vermin Exterminator.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2881, 24 April 1888, Page 2

Nuttall's patent Rabbit and Vermin Exterminator.

Duringi the past few days, Mr Nuttall, in company with Mr Orbell of the Sheep and Rabbit department, and and several other leading settlers have been experimenting on the property of Messrs Wardell Bros at Te Whiti, near Masterton, with a view to testing the destructive capabilities of Mr Nuttall's Patent Eabbil Exterminator. The locality chosen for the trials was that of some of the underground water courses which are so plentiful on the steep slopes of the Te Whiti hills. We doubt whether a more suitable place to test " bunny's" supremacy could have been found in the district. Hero subterranean passages cguld be seen in all directions connecting with hundreds of others, In fact wo would not bo

fur wrong were we to say that the various hills for miles are ;honeycombed, so numerous are the burrows, For years past Messrs Wardell Bros, have spoilt hundreds of pounds in trying to keep the 'rabbits ,;i down on their property, but so far their well-intended efforts have met with little or only partial success. To wholly exterminate them, from these hills is almost impossible, and to have any chance of doing so at all, suffocation by poisonous fumes must be one of the agents employed. The trial lasted over three days. The first day little was done, but 1 afterwards Mr jSfufctull's - perseverance was rewarded by meeting with great success, In every instance in which time was taken to thoroughly fumigate tho burrows, tho rabbits were found dead. In one-case, at the end of a runner fully 40 feet in length, were placed two live rabbits. The carbon gas generator, was then attached at tho other end and the tunnel fumigated without stopping tho outlets up. Within two minutes both rabbits had succumbed. Other tests were sriven in burrows and runners ranging from a few teet to two chains ill length, and the rabbits when dug out appeared to have died instantaneously. From what we could ascertain the machine gave general y satisfaction to those gentleman who witnessed its working. There is _ no doubt the exterminator would cause great havoc among rabbits in suitable country. The carbon gas, it may be mentioned, is heavier than the natural air, and it therefore descends more easily than it rises, The deadly effect , illustrated on a few rabbits is said to be just as easily applied to hundreds, Mr Orbell, we understand, considers Mr Nuttall's plan a most effective way of destroying the pest, and thatit can be ■ used with ad van tageously fa tal results i n country where it ia not likely to be antagonistic to the natural enemies of the rabbit, for it must be remembered that it is alike deadly to friend and foe, and that the ferrets, weasels, <Sic., imported at great expense, are no more impervious to its life-taking powers than are rabbits. In short, the invention is a really useful and valuable adjunct to existing agents, and as such can in careful hands be of great service indeed towards reducing the population ~ of the rabbit kingdom. ( Wo have previously described the . apparatus used by Mr Nuttall in the above trial, but for the benefit of our readers who may have overlooked the iiccomit of it, we will briefly recapitulate, it, The whole, machine weighs only about 14 lbs, imd it can be conveniently carried and used by even a lad, It consists of a. holder or gas generator, a pair of bellows similar to ordinary house bellows, and some indiarubber tubing. The latter connects the bellows with the generator, and the generator with the rabbit burrows. The principle is the introduction of pure air by the bellows into the generator, where by being forced through carbon, it is converted into a deadly gas, having a more powerful and fatal influence tlian the wefl-knownsulphide of carbon. This carbon gas is then transmitted by the pressure of air from tlie bellows into the burrows which it vapidly and thoroughly dealing death to all animal life it into contact with, This, briefly described, is Mr Nuttall's invention, and his object in giving the present trial is that Inspector Orbell may report the result of his observations to the Government and also his impressions of the value of the patent as an eradicating agent. Mr Nlittall, we understand,. has not yet placed the exterminator on the public market, for he is so confident of its powers that he has decided to first await tho Government's decis<- ' ion regarding it, with the idea that they will consider it of sufficient importance to acquire the right, either by the payment of a royalty or some other compensation.