1074 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



system of management. The produce is the largest on new lands; however, much of the profit must 

 always depend on situation, so as to be near good markets. These animals are in what is termed season 

 from the end of October to the beginning of January, in which period the best skins arc produced : of 

 course a large proportion of them is killed in this short time. The farmer often sustains great loss in 

 what by the purchasers are called half skins, quarter skins, and racks, sixteen of which are only consi- 

 dered as a whole skin. The rabbits are disposed of by the hundred, six score couple being considered as 

 an hundred. 



7351. The breeding and rearing of tame rabbits is carried on in hutches or stores of boxes placed in 

 sheds or apartments of any kind secure from vermin. We shall give a view of the practice as to rabbitry 

 and furniture, varieties, breeding, feeding, and produce. 



73;j2. The rabbit-house should be particularly dry and well ventilated, as these quadrupeds are very sub- 

 ject to the rot and to liver complaints like sheep. 

 7353. The huts or hutches [fig. 908.) are boxes or chests, eighteen inches or more high, and from two and 

 a half to three feet wide, generally divided in two {a and b), and the rooms 

 thus formed communicating by a sliding door, the use of which is to confine 

 the rabbits in the inner division (a), whilst the outer, which has a wire door 

 [fig. 909.), is cleaning. Generally these 909 



hutches are placed in rows above each 

 other against one side of the rabbit-house, 

 and sometimes they are placed in the open 

 air against a wall, within a wired or netted 

 enclosure. Sometimes they are ranged 

 along the floor ; but the neatest mode is to place them on brackets 

 round the room, or on stands about three feet high on the floor. In 

 both tliese cases it is to be understood that they are not allowed to run 

 about the rabbit-room, the use of which is solely to enclose and protect 

 them in an atmosphere of moderate temperature, and to contain a bin 

 with corn, a truss of clover hay, and any such food as sheep will live 

 and thrive upon. The utensil for feeding rabbits so hutched is simply a trough (c), which may be formed 

 of pewter, very hard wood, earthenware, or cast iron, as rabbits are very apt to gnaw them ; and it should 

 be divided on the surface crossways every four or six inches, to prevent them from scratching and throw- 

 ing out their corn. Some add a small rack for their clover, but that will not be lost if given on the floor 

 in small quantities. 



7354'. The rabbits of the Arigora breed yield in Normandy a wool which serves as a primary material in 

 several considerable manufactures. It is used alone, and also mixed up with sheep's wool and cotton. 

 The rabbits are found to delight more than any thing in the leaves of the Robin/rt pseiid. Acacia; and as 

 this plant grows on common sandy soils, it has been proposed to cultivate it for the sake of these rabbits. 

 {Com. to Board of Ag. vol. i. p. 259.) 



735.5. There are numerous varieties of tame rabbits ; but the broad-chested and short-legged are the 

 most hardy, and fatten most expeditiously. There is a large variety of the hare colour, which has high- 

 coloured and high-flavoured flesh, more savoury than that of the common rabbit; they make a good dish 

 cooked like the hare, which at six or eight months old they nearly equal in size. The large white and 

 yellow and white species have whiter and more delicate flesh, and cooked in the same way will rival the 

 turkey. The Turkish or French rabbit is esteemed by some, but differs little from the common variety. 

 All these and other varieties are to be had from the London dealers and poultrymen. 



7356. Breeding. The doe will breed at the age of six months ; and her period of gestation is thirty or 

 thirty-one days. It should be premised, that the buck and doe are by no means to be left together ; but 

 their union having been successful, the buck must be immediately withdrawn, and the doe tried again in 

 three days : in fact, with rabbits this business is conducted on the same principle as in the stud. Like 

 chickens, the best breeding rabbits are those kindled in March. Some days before parturition or kindling, 

 hay is to be given to the doe, to assist in making her bed with the flue which nature has instructed her to 

 tear from her body for that purpose. She will be at this period seen sitting upon her haunches and tearing 

 off" the flue, and the hay being presented to her, she will with her teeth reduce and shatter it to her pur- 

 pose. Biting down of the litter or bed is the first sign of pregnancy. The number produced, generally 

 between five and ten ; and it is most advantageous always to destroy the weak or sickly ones as soon as 

 their defects can be perceived ; because five healthy and well grown rabbits are worth more than double 

 the number of an opj>osite description, and the doe will be far less exhausted. She will admit the buck 

 again with profit at the end of six weeks, when the young may be separated from her and weaned : or the 

 young may be suckled two months, the doe taken back at the end of five weeks, so that the former litter 

 will leave her about a week before her next parturition. A notion was formerly prevalent of the necessity 

 for giving the buck immediately after the doe had brought forth, lest she should pine, and that no time 

 should be lost; and if it were intended that no time might be lost in destroying the doe, such indeed 

 would be the most successful method. Great care should be taken that the doe, during her gestation, be 

 not approached by the buck, or indeed by any other rabbit ; as, from being harassed about, she will almost 

 certainly cast her young. One doe in a thousand may devour her young; the sign that she ought to be 

 otherwise disposed of Some does admit the buck with difficulty, although often apparently in season : such 

 should be immediately fattened off; since it can never be worth while to keep any individual for breeding 

 of a stock to be_ produced in such multitudes against which there lies an objection. Should the doe be 

 weak on her bringing forth, from cold, cough, or other causes, she will drink beer-caudle as well as any 

 other lady ; or warm fresh grains will comfort her, a salt mash, scalded fine pollard, or barley-meal, in 

 which may be mixed a small quantity of cordial horse ball. With due attention to keeping them warm 

 and comfortable, and guarding against every sudden impression from cold, and more particularly moist 

 air, and with the aid of the best and most nourishing food, rabbits may be bred throughout tue winter, 

 with nearly equal success as in the summer season ; but in truth their produce is so multitudinous, that 

 one might well be satisfied with four or five litters during the best part of the year, giving the doe a winter 

 fallow. 



7357. Feeding. According to Mowbray, it is better to feed three times than twice a day. The art of 

 feeding rabbits with safety and advantage is, always to give the upper hand to dry and substantial food. 

 Their nature is congenial with that of sheep, and the same kind of food, with little variation, agrees with 

 both. All weeds and the refuse of vegetation should be banished from rabbit feeding. Such articles are 

 too washy and diuretic, and can never be worth attention whilst the more solid and nutritious productions 

 of the field may be obtained in such plenty, and will return so much greater profit. Rabbits may indeed 

 be kept, and even fattened, upon roots, good green meat, and hay ; but they will pay for corn, and this 

 may be taken as a general rule : Rabbits which have as much corn as they will eat can never take any 

 harm from being indulged with almost an equal portion of good substantial vegetables. However, the test 

 of health is that their dung be not too moist. Many or most of the town feeders never allow any greens 

 at all ; the reason, I suppose, because they feed almost entirely on grains. The corn proper for rabbits is 

 oats, peas, wheat, pollard, and some give buck-wheat : the greens and roots the same as our cattle crops ; 

 namely, carrots. Jerusalem artichokes, and if potatoes, baked or steamed ; lucerne, cabbage leaves, clover, 

 Jares, furze. Mowbray has had them hoven from eating rape ; and not improbably field-beet might have 

 a similar effect. The best dried herbage is clover and meadow hay, and pea and bean straw. 



7358. Rabbits are generally sold from the teat, but there is also a demand for those of larger size, which 

 may be fattened upon corn and hay, with an allowance of the best vegetables. The better the food, the 



