4 PRACTICAL RABBIT KEEPING 



crops. Rabbits demand but comparatively 

 little care, although they must be kept clean 

 and fed regularly. At present there is a con- 

 siderable demand for breeding stock in most 

 communities, it being possible to sell a suffi- 

 cient number of breeders to pay all the cost of 

 raising the rabbit meat consumed on the table. 

 Indeed, many breeders have only the poorest 

 specimens left for food, but this situation can- 

 not be expected to last and the industry must 

 eventually become established on a meat basis. 

 Across the water an enormous demand for 

 rabbit meat has been created by the war. Even 

 before the war came Great Britain imported 

 10,000 or 12,000 tons. When the supply from 

 the continent failed and shipments from 

 Australia were cut off for lack of ships, the 

 English people began raising their own rab- 

 bits and rabbit hutches were to be found in 

 back yards everywhere. Now the business of 

 raising rabbits for food seems to have been 

 established on a permanent basis in England, 

 as it has been on the continent for many years. 

 The extent to which interest in rabbit keeping 

 has spread throughout the United States and 

 Canada may be judged by visiting the shows, 



