Photograph by Norman Thomas 



AN AUSTRALIAN RABBIT TRAPPER 



An Englishman, moving to Australia, desired to give his farm a homelike air, so he took 

 along some rabbits. They began to spread like the English sparrow in America, and soon 

 the fertile parts of the country were overrun. The rabbit march inland was that of a pitiless 

 vandal army, for, in the dry years, not content with nibbling the grass of the sheep and cattle 

 stations to the point where it would not make goose pasture, they ate it out by the very roots, 

 barked all the trees, and left nothing but blank desolation behind them. Poison was tried, 

 special machines being devised to sow poisoned grain in furrows where the rabbits would 

 burrow for it, but the sheep and cattle would pass it over. But it came nearer to killing off 

 all the birds than it did the rabbits and was abandoned. Now rabbit-proof fences and 

 bounties hold the rabbit plague in check. 



of wire netting 3 feet wide, set 4 inches 

 into the ground, and topped by a strand 

 of barbed-wire placed above the netting. 

 A "vermin fence," designed to prevent 

 the encroachment of "rabbits, wild dogs, 

 and foxes and any other animals which 

 the governor, by proclamation, declares 

 to be vermin," is built like a rabbit-proof 

 fence, but reaches a height of 4*2 feet 

 and includes three strands of wire at the 

 top. Especially designed gates are used 

 on highways and the penalty for leaving 

 one open is justly severe. 



The cost of these fences is enormous, 

 for distances are great, construction is 

 expensive, and they must be continually 

 patrolled and repaired ; but the need is 

 imperative and the work has been vigor- 

 ously pushed. Vermin fences run through 

 woods, cross vacant fields, and stretch far 



out into the desert. They border stream 

 channels and follow the shores of the 

 great salt lakes, dividing the country into 

 a series of irregular blocks. 



The State of South Australia has, since 

 1 891, erected 29,148 miles of fence, 

 enough to encircle the globe and with the 

 remnant build a double line of fence 

 along the southern border of the United 

 States. When contracts now running are 

 completed the mileage will be much in- 

 creased. New South Wales has expend- 

 ed over $27,000,000 for rabbit extermina- 

 tion and has within its borders 98,000 

 miles of fence. One of West Australia's 

 fences extends entirely across the con- 

 tinent. 



Of late years the rabbit has been re- 

 paying in part for his keep — paying 

 board, as it were. He goes to swell the 



5-P 



