CONSUMPTION OF RABBITS IN AUSTRALIA. 



77 



give 600,000 as a very rough approximation of the total number con- 

 sumed in the United States per annum. Estimated at the rate of $1.50 

 to $3 per dozen the total value would be about $75,000 or $100,000. 

 This, however, is only a small proportion of the total number of rabbits 

 used as game, since cottontails are sold everywhere in much larger 

 quantities. 



In connection with these figures it will be interesting to compare the 

 number of rabbits sold in one of the large cities of Australia. Mel- 

 bourne, the capital of Victoria, according to the census of 1891, had a 

 population of 490, 896 — somewhat more than that of San Francisco, Cal. 

 The following table from the Victorian Year Book for 1893 f Vol. II, p. 262) 

 shows the number of rabbits sold in Melbourne during the seven years 

 from 1886 to 1893: 



Xumher of Babbits shipped to markets of Melbourne, Australia, 





Number of couples of rabbits- 



Tear. 



Sold. 



Con- 

 demned. 



Total. 



igge 87 



346, 856 

 418, 618 

 474, 384 

 606, 568 

 676, 796 

 572,426 

 617, 773 



4,460 

 2,272 

 13, 458 

 11, 567 

 5,955 

 17, 977 

 19, 275 



351 316 







1888-89 



487, 842 

 618, 135 

 682, 751 



1890 91 







1892-93 



637 048 







Total couples 



3, 713, 421 



74, 964 



3,788 385 







Total rabbits 



7, 426, 842 

 1, 060, 977 



149, 928 

 21, 418 



7 576 770 





1, 082, 395 







Evidently rabbits are more extensively used for food in Australia 

 than in this country, but in comparing the figures it should be remem- 

 bered that the statistics for Melbourne include the total number of 

 rabbits sold, whereas those given for jack rabbits consumed in the 

 cities of the United States represent only a part of the rabbits sold. 



England imports, it is said, about 124,000 hundredweight of rabbits 

 yearly for food, which are valued at £342,000.^ 



So far as known, little or nothing has been done in the United States 

 in the way of canning jack rabbits, although the subject has been 

 discussed occasionally. When rabbit driving was being agitated in 

 Tulare County, Cal., the Visalia Delta of January 26, 1888, published an 

 article on "Money in Babbits," which advocated canning some of the 

 jack rabbits which were being killed in large numbers at that time. The 

 article was based mainly on statistics of the industry in ISTew Zealand, 

 and apparently the suggestion has never been adopted, at least not on a 

 commercial scale. After making special inquiries concerning the utili- 

 zation of rabbits, Mr. C. D. Willard, secretary of the Los Angeles 

 Chamber of Commerce, reports: "No use whatever is made of the 



'SimuioDcls, Commercial Dictionary of Trade Products, Loudon^ 1892^ p. 486. 



