202 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



native flies. It is said that red clover would not grow 

 in New Zealand until bumblebees were introduced to 

 fertilize its flowers. Wakefield estimates that the intro- 

 duction of these large wild bees has been worth five mil- 

 lion dollars to the farmers in New Zealand. 



Dr. Edward L. Youmans quotes from Dr. Hooker 

 the statement that, in New Zealand, " the cow grass has 

 taken possession of the roadsides; dock and water cress 

 choke the rivers; the sow thistle is spread all over the 

 country, growing luxuriantly up to six thousand feet; 

 white clover in the mountain districts displaces the na- 

 tive grasses." The native (Maori) saying is, "As the white 

 man's rat has driven away the native rat, as the European 

 fly drives away our own, and the clover kills our fern, so 

 will the Maoris disappear before the white man himself." 



Prof. Sidney Dickinson gives the following valuable 

 notes on the rabbit and other plagues of Australia : 



" The average annual cost to Australasia of the 

 rabbit plague is ;^7oo,ooo, or nearly $3,500,000. 



" The work which these enormous figures represent 

 has a marked effect in reducing the number of rabbits 

 in the better districts, although there is little reason to 

 suppose that their extermination will ever be more than 

 partial. Most of the larger runs show very few at pres- 

 ent, and rabbit-proof fencing, which has been set around 

 thousands of square miles, has done much to check 

 further inroads. Until this invention began to be 

 utilized it was not uncommon to find as many as a 

 hundred rabbiters employed on a single property, whose 

 working average was from three hundred to four hundred 

 rabbits per day. As they received five shillings a hun- 

 dred from the station owner, and were also able to sell 

 the skins at eight shillings a hundred, their profession 

 was most lucrative. Seventy-five dollars a week was not 

 an uncommon wage, and many an unfortunate squatter 



