WHERE RABBITS ARE KILLED FOR MARKET. 73 



one of the large drives, as many as 400 jack rabbits to the San Fran- 

 cisco market. In the fall of 1892 one of his neighbors made a business 

 of market hunting, sometimes killiug six dozen jack rabbits per day, 

 and in one week he secured 26 dozen. This man shot from a one-horse 

 buckboard, and nearly all the game was retrieved and brought to the 

 wagon by his setter. During the autumn of 1894 three men and a boy 

 killed about 200 rabbits per day and sent them to San Fraucisco. The 

 shipments from Goshen during the month of November 1894, amounted 

 to about 1,000 jack rabbits, weighing 3,860 jjounds. 



Two hunters in Kern County, Cal., made a series of thirteen rabbit 

 drives last winter for the purpose of obtaining rabbits for market. 

 Tliese drives were made in various localities near Delano, beginning on 

 November 14, 1894. More than 25,000 jack rabbits were secured and 

 about two-thirds of them were shipped, bringing from 50 cents to $1.25 

 per dozen in San Francisco. The venture, however, proved unsuccess- 

 ful, as the expenses for sacks, twine, commission, and transportation 

 amounted to 61 cents per dozen and many of the rabbits spoiled in 

 transit. It was claimed that if the bounty had not been removed there 

 would have been a profit instead of a loss. 



Many jack rabbits are shipped to market from Kansas. Norton, 

 Winona, and other places in the western part of the State send the 

 game to Denver, while from points in central and southern Kansas a 

 good deal is shipped direct to New York and other Eastern cities. 

 A commission merchant in Great Bend, Kans., states that he shipped 

 about 4,200 jack rabbits (350 dozen) during the winter of 1893-94 and 

 about 6,000 (500 dozen) during the winter of 1894-95. Most of this 

 game was sent to Kansas City, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, and 

 Boston. Considerable quantities are also shipped to the New York 

 market from Independence, Kans. A single invoice of several hundred 

 pair was received from that point in the winter of 1889-90, and a com- 

 mission merchant writes that his shipments from Independence have 

 been increasing gradually during the last few years at the rate of 200 

 to 300 per year. In the winter of 1894-95 he shipped about 1,600 jack 

 rabbits direct to New York. McPherson County is one of the main 

 shipping centers in the State, and a dealer in Marquette writes that he 

 handled 2,646 jack rabbits last season. The freight traffic manager of 

 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad reports that three car- 

 loads were forwarded from McPherson in the winter of 1893-94, two 

 consigned to Chicago and one to New York. Last season the McPher- 

 son Produce Company handled 7,927 jack rabbits, and the total ship- 

 ments from that place average about five carloads, or 20,000 rabbits a 

 season, 75 per cent being sent to New York. The game is not often for- 

 warded in carload lots, but is usually shipped with dressed poultry in 

 ordinary refrigerator cars. 



The Black-eared Jack Rabbit {Leptis melanotis) is the principal species 

 shipped from Kansas, but the white-tailed Prairie Hare {L. campestris) 



