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, “Asthe 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 £700,000, 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 . 
