PRACTICAL RABBIT KEEPING 



Chapter I. 

 WHY TO RAISE RABBITS. 



SOME twenty years ago the United States 

 and Canada experienced what is still 

 spoken of as the Belgian Hare boom. 

 Small fortunes were made and lost in the 

 breeding of these rabbits — for true rabbits 

 they are, the name of hare being a misnomer. 

 Elaborate breeding houses were constructed, 

 hundreds of animals were imported and such 

 prices as fifty and one hundred dollars for 

 single rabbits were common. Now this boom 

 was largely artificial, built up by a few breed- 

 ers with stock to sell and kept going by the 

 repeated assurances of these breeders that all 

 surplus stock could be sold for meat at profit- 

 able prices. In point of fact there was very 

 little demand for rabbit meat apart from that 



