WILD RABBIT FARMING 193 



The reasons for the economic failure of rabbit-warrens 

 hitherto are not far to seek. Opinion on the subject of 

 the wild rabbit has long pronounced that any land the 

 worse the better suits rabbits ; and when this has been 

 well stocked the pasture is left, without manure, or 

 lime, or any of those restorative agents which are 

 necessary to replace the waste caused by the sale of the 

 rabbits which have built up their active little bodies 

 from the produce of the soil. The result is that the 

 catch grows yearly less, and the land is pronounced to 

 be "rabbit-sick." Rabbit farming can only be con- 

 ducted successfully just on the same conditions as any 

 other form of stock-raising, with this exception, that 

 the habits of the rabbit make it peculiarly suitable for 

 such a purpose. It is, perhaps, the least wasteful feeder 

 among all the rodent tribe. Unlike the hare, which is 

 dainty and particular, and causes more damage to crops 

 by wandering from place to place to satisfy its whims 

 and fancies than by the actual needs of its appetite, the 

 rabbits move slowly forward from the edge of the 

 covert or burrow, going over the same ground every 

 day. If the burrows are properly distributed over the. 

 warren, the rabbits will eat the grass down as it grows, 

 keeping it short throughout the summer. If they do 

 not, the warren is either ill-arranged or under-stocked. 

 A few months cover the whole feeding period ; and by 

 the beginning of November most of the rabbits should 

 be caught, and only the breeding-stock left through the 

 winter, which can be provided with artificial food at 

 little expense in long frosts or snow. Thus, beyond 



