THE RABBIT PEST.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1411, 19 July 1881, Page 3

THE RABBIT PEST.

Ox the 9tli of August last the Colonial Secretary Avrote to the Government of New South Wales, requesting information as to what steps the South Australian Government had taken in the matter of rabbit destruction. The following is a digest ol the information conveyed to the New Zealand Government in answer to this request : — Mr G. W. Goyder, the Chief Surveyor of South Australia, writing on September 7, 1880, says : "I have found after many and careful experiments that, the most effectual way of destroying the rabbits in tlieJr burrows is by means of bisulphide of carbon, and the proper form of apparatus for manufacturing t such, being now in use and the right method of its application, no ■' difficulty is experienced in keeping it in wording t onfer. The cost of making the bisulphide is about 9d per lb, and there is now being made about 17501bs per ■week. If the bisulphide is pure, a 'can with, measuring tap' may be used. If in the crude state the impurities corrode, tlie tap, and a 'different mode of measuring is adopted." , , „,, „ , lad series of experiments' made it was found that the manner /of using ithe bisulphide of carbon indicated in the instructions was by far thp/nost economical and effecsfjal in de)3,troyin£ Hbbitptn their holes. ' _ , i# n , - q tfrisbruefcions for using 1 J bl-§ulphide/o| carbon.— "'-Wur 'enough >of lii-sulphide from the jar into the 1 field can, or a small ■wide-moiithedi 'icfc dsiy.'^. wbrk. Make a small ball about the size of a walnut, at the -tod of a smalbstick, dip the ball in the bisulphide,/ and immediately pkb'e in ( rabbit 'hfyhyafftf as possible, closing the 'hols'at 'once. 'Keep the bi-sulphide in a cool place, and not ex-.. posed ? dit&tl y mte^& ?yi '**° li(n ™ ma In answer to iafturtHer letter from the IColonial Secretary J oi -New Zealand, reqaestmg ta^be'.fh^pTmid^isltd the^jnttiijifacture of the bi-sulphide of carbon, I 'it n rftMTrr nifri TiT niin'iTaniiiiifriir

Government, that the beßt method of manufacturing bi-B»lphide of carbon is that of Gerard and Auberjt, as deoribed in Payne's Industrial Chemistry, small balls for saturating with bisulphide are made of r cottpiHw.aste r> -the , coloured variety heing the cheapest, and answers