THE RABBIT PEST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3897, 27 August 1891, Page 2

THE RABBIT PEST.

Tho Nature! Enemy,

[From the Hawke's Bat Herald.] Notwithstanding the determination of the Babbit Board not to introduce stoats and weasels into Hawke's Bay, a resident in the neighbourhood of te Aute has imported six ferrets to turn loose. Our own views on this point are pretty well known. At present we hold that it is folly to import another pest to deal with the rabbits us long aa they are few and ean be kept down by other means. But, as a newspaper, it is our duty to put both sides of the question before our readers, and we therefore publish the following extract from the letter announcing the shipment of the ferrets of Napier : "-——-, of Kaikoura, is now keeping 100,000 acres of rough country clear of rabbits by means of ferrets alone, which are bred by one man and one boy. He formerly kept seventeen men rabbitting, and the rabbits increased steadily year by year. I suggest that you either start breeding with these,orbetter,turn these out and get a good yard prepared and tnen buy a good lot, say fifty. pays his man 10a each for all turned out and finds the ferrets and all plant. It is far cheaper than the professional rabbiters—whom carefully avoid—rather take a decent lad new to the work and let him learn under your supervision. Sliced apple or carrot, dusted with arsenic or strychnine, will clear off rabbits in summer, but if you aie going in for the natural enemy, poison, traps, and bi-sulphide of carbon must be avoided. From what I hear you have some Maori land next you on which rabbits are fairly numerous. I have been for years subject to the same thing, and have found wire netting to be the only remedy, and in the end the least costly. Carefully keep dogs with distemper far from the ferrets, aa they take that malady easily, and it is certain death to the whole of them. Food: fresh meat and pure water, bread and milk, birds, rats, or rabbits. —N.B.—Do not use phosphorised grain in the summer."