CHAPTER XII 



THE RABBIT IN THE GARDEN ECONOMY 



THE place of the chicken is well established on 

 every bill-of-fare. Not so the rabbit at least, 

 in America. And yet, rabbit meat is as white 

 and delicate as chicken, rather more nutritious, and now 

 often preferred by physicians in prescribing for con- 

 valescents ; and the rabbit is an ideal kind of livestock 

 for the garden home. Like the chicken, it lives largely 

 from the surplus greens in the garden, and is amenable 

 to the most intensive methods of housing and feeding, 

 so that it may be kept, even in goodly numbers, on a 

 very small space of ground. But, unlike the chicken, 

 the rabbit requires a friendly propaganda to make its 

 virtues understood and enable it to win its rightful 

 place in the household, the restaurant, and the hotel. 

 During the past few years this propaganda has come 

 into being in the form of a strong national association, 

 with many local branches and a growing membership, 

 with annual rabbit shows in many leading cities. It has 

 its literature, periodicals, and specialists in different 

 departments. During the War it attracted the atten- 

 tion of the Government, which turned to this humble 

 quarter as a means of increasing the country's meat 

 supply. 



In Europe, the rabbit is an old story. In 1912, for 



133 



