432 



THB AGRI C V LT U RAL JOURNAL. 



■where the creatures have been isolated, 

 they are so puny and die otf so rapidly 

 that they have never attained the dignity 

 of a scourge. 



Results in the Transvaal. 



Since that time I have always taken a 

 great interest in the Belgian hare, and 

 have had nnmerious opportunitips for 

 observing niljbit farming in England, 

 Holland, and parts of Belgiu'n, where the 

 business is reduced to a highly profitable 

 science. Of course the great question is 

 how far the conditions that obtain in 

 Natal and South Afi'ica generally would 

 fit in with the results of my European 

 expei'ience. I induced several people in 

 the Tiansvaal to rear Belgians, and helped 

 and watched the process. In most cases 

 the results came up to expectations, the 

 exceptions being where the conditions I 

 laid down as indispensable were dis- 

 regardetl. A friend on the East Rand 

 started in LSDt) with eight Belgian does 

 and two bucks, which were not, however, 

 what 1 regarded as good specimens, they 

 having been reared by a coolie, who, I 

 believe, brought them up from Natal. 

 Within two years he was supplying an 

 average of .'50 hares a week ac 3s. each, 

 which gave him a profit of nearly 2s. 6d. 

 apiece, and he estimated that one Belgian 

 doe was worth on average £4 a year to 

 him. He allowed them to breed six 

 times a year, getting an average litter of 

 seven, of which five lived to marketable 

 St ge. 



Management. 



That the breeding of Belgians for the 

 table may be made a highly profitable 

 bu-iness in Natal and the Transvaal is a 

 proposition that would be impossible to 

 deny, always presuming that the breeder 

 exercises care and discretion. To begin 

 with, the breeding does must be carefully 

 selected, kept in large hutches of the 

 pattern I will later describe, and when, at 

 six or seven weeks old, the youngsters are 

 turned out, they must be kept in a 

 B])acious wired eiiclosure giving at least a 

 square yard to each bunny, and provided 

 with a Gulficiency of frcsJi green food in 

 the shape of grasses and juicy weeds as 

 described in Mr. Power's paper. 



By i)loughing up a plot of land 50 

 yards square and sowing broadcast black 

 jack, hittuce, coarse cabbage, and any 



succulent weed that experience shows 

 the creatures will eat, and by cropping 

 this daily, sufficient food will be provided 

 to supply 300 rabbits. 



This food supply, especially in winter 

 is, as far as I have been able to ascertain, 

 the only real difficulty likely to occur to 

 the rabbit farmer in South Africa ; but a 

 little forethought and arrangement will 

 overcome it. Most emphatically would I 

 protest against the popular notion that a 

 rabbit can be successfully reared by turn- 

 ing it out to shift for itself. It requires 

 care and attention to protect it against 

 many dangers which it is impotent to 

 guard against by itself. Every creature 

 in creation can be, and is, improved by 

 care, and the Belgian hare particularly. 

 The breeding does must be well housed 

 and fed if a healthy, profitable progeny is 

 expected^ and it is to them that the 

 principal care must be devoted. The 

 breeding hutch in which her life is spent 

 must be constructed on the following 

 plan, which is practically a canvas varia- 

 tion on the well known wooden Morant 

 Hutch which has been so successful in 

 England. It is 6ft. or 7ft. by 3ft. wide 

 and 2ft. high. The roof, one side, and 

 one end are covered with painted canvas, 

 or stout well-oiled calico. One «ide and 

 one end are enclosed with inch mesh 

 wire. It has no bottom. At one end is 

 the breeding box, a water-tight compart- 

 ment of wood 2ft. by 3ft., with an open- 

 ing to the open portion of the hutch. 

 The floor must be of wood, and raised an 

 inch or so from the ground. Such a 

 hutch need not cost more than five or six 

 shillings. I have made them in the 

 Transvaal for even less. This hutch is 

 placed in the open on a piece of good grass 

 land, and once or twice a day must be 

 moved on, its own width. The rabbit 

 thus exists as nearly as possible under 

 natural conditions, is kept perfectly clean, 

 and free from that contamination which 

 renders the ordinary hutch-reared rabbit 

 an abomination. She spends her life here, 

 producing a litter every two months, 

 which are taken from her at six or seven 

 weeks old, and turned into a wired en- 

 closure of the dimensions I have given, 

 where they run till three months old, by 

 which time they should weigh anything 

 from 4^lbs. to Gibs., and are fit for market. 

 Their cover inside the enclosure should 



