RABBITS 177 
building paper from the apple trees and in a single 
night injured hundreds of them. ‘Gunny-sack’ and 
other cloth wrappings, well tied on, are effective pro- 
tectors. Cornstalks also furnish a cheap material for 
orchard protection. They are cut into lengths of 18 
to 20 inches, split, and tied with the flat side against 
the tree, so as fully to cover the trunk.’’ 
RABBITS AS PETS. 
It hardly falls within the scope of this book 
to treat the subject of rabbits as pets; but 
some brief directions for keeping them may not 
be amiss. 
. All the various forms of pet rabbits, includ- 
ing what is called the Belgian hare, are varie- 
ties of the wild European rabbit brought about . 
by selective breeding in domestication. That 
under favorable circumstances they would 
thrive and multiply wild here, or in any tem- 
perate part of the world, is shown by the hordes 
of them which became a formidable pest in 
Australia. A vast amount of time and work 
and money have been expended in trying to 
get rid of them, and it has been found that 
the best plan has been to fence them out of 
the farm-lands and ‘sheep-pastures where they 
