Oct. 2, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 691 



For every dozen does at the burrows, ten bucks were caught. Buck 

 heaps are supposed to be the preserves of the males, but two reporters record 

 18 and 146 bucks and 23 and 125 does, trapped at these heaps. 



If the opposition to trapping was soundly based on the reason that the 

 destruction of bucks ultimately leads to the increase of the pest, then poison- 

 ing should not be allowed, because the following figures disclose many more 

 bucks being poisoned than does. 



Rabbits poisoned, mostly by strychnine, as reported by landholders : — 



10,429 8,-879 



It is claimed that where trappers are at work, the rabbits become very 

 wild and ai'e scattered about, but the same thing occurs when the poison 

 cart is used. 



Statements are frequently made that trappers let the kittens go. No 

 doubt many do, but the legs are invariably broken when caught in a trap. 

 Many of the young rabbits must die from gangrene, even when only the 

 stump is left. The Government graders at Manilla and Gunnedah informed 

 me that only about one in 2,000 grown rabbits brought to the works 

 were without one leg. With trapping there is little danger to stock, whereas 

 poisoning is often the cause of serious losses. The trapper can work effec- 

 tively all the year round, whereas for months at a stretch rabbits will not 

 take poison. If the trapper's catch is small, of course, he is not well paid for 

 his labour ; but the case of the poisoner is worse, for when the rabbits will 

 not take his baits he not only gets nothing for his labour, but he is also at 

 the loss of the poison, which of late has been very expensive. 



Although rabbits are very scarce at the present time, they will assuredly 

 soon again become a menace to the agricultural and pastoral industries, 

 unless the price of skins remains high, and the matter of destruction will 

 then become a live question. 



These few notes might prove an incentive for others to keep records and 

 publish them in the interests of landholders. Such information would be 

 particularly valuable to persons administering the Pastures Protection Act, 

 and would serve to break down prejudices that are not founded on fact. 



Thb U.S. Weekly News Letter relates the case of a dairy farmer whose cream 

 cheques before he started testing his cows amounted to 78 dollars, for the 

 produce of 27 cows. A year later his cheques were 223 dollars for the 

 produce of 28 cows — a pretty good return for the small outlay in time and 

 expense involved in testing and culling the herd. 



