OCTOBER 223 



diminished if a considerable area be enclosed in a 

 rectangle; but even so it adds very seriously to the 

 outlay. Thus if a rectangular area of 64 acres is to be 

 planted, it will take 2240 yards of wire netting to 

 protect it, costing 56, or an extra charge of 17s. 6d. 

 per acre. 



It may be said that it would pay the proprietor 

 better to destroy all the rabbits on his ground. Doubt- 

 less it would, but how shall he protect himself from 

 invasion off adjoining lands ? Rabbits have fine powers 

 of locomotion, travelling far in search of food and 

 comfortable quarters. You may destroy every rabbit in 

 your woods ; it only requires the arrival of two or three 

 courting pairs to drop in from your neighbour's ground, 

 to ensure you a full stock in eighteen months. For the 

 fecundity of rabbits is prodigious. A strong doe will 

 produce five or six litters of six or eight each in a single 

 season, and her daughters set about making her a 

 grandmother when they are six months old. Moreover, 

 you cannot reckon upon your tenants joining you in a 

 crusade of extermination. The very farmers whose 

 bitter and just complaint brought about the Ground 

 Game Act of 1880, now often looks with a jealous eye 

 upon their landlord if he exercises more than his equal 

 share in the joint right of killing rabbits ; so there is less 

 chance than ever of a successful co-operative effort to 

 exterminate these pests, and to confine them to their 

 proper place the enclosed warren. 



The provoking part of the business is that man him- 

 self is responsible for the mischief. Rabbits are not 

 indigenous either in the British Isles or in the greater 



