RAISING BELGIAN HARES AND OTHER RABBITS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The present bulletin is designed to answer briefly the many letters 

 of inquiry received by the Department of Agriculture, particularly 

 by the Bureau of Biological Survey, relative to the breeding and 

 management of Belgian hares and other domesticated rabbits. No 

 originality is claimed for the subject matter. The principal facts 

 in regard to the raising of rabbits are as well established as those 

 relating to rearing the more important domestic animals, and the 

 volume of directions needed is small. Once launched as a breeder, 

 the amateur will accumulate experience day by day which will soon 

 enable him to avoid gross mistakes in rabbit management. 



RABBITS AS FOOD. 



In the United States wild rabbits have always been an important 

 source of food, especially during the cold part of the year, and hence 

 less attention has been paid to the breeding of rabbits than in most 

 foreign countries. It would be impossible to estimate correctly the 

 number of rabbits marketed and eaten in Great Britain. Not only 

 are the home warrens and farms drawn upon for a supply, but 

 from 10,000 to 12,000 tons are imported annually, coming partly from 

 the Continent, but in greatest numbers from Australia and New 

 Zealand. 



In France, Holland, and Belgium rabbits are a common article of 

 diet and rabbit breeding is general on farms, especially where the 

 land holdings are small. Spain produces many domestic rabbits and 

 is sometimes regarded as the original home of the common European 

 rabbit {Lepus cuniculus), since Strabo, writing about the beginning 

 of the Christian Era, stated that ship cargoes of rabbits were brought 

 to the Roman markets from that country. Whether or not the 

 European rabbit is superior as food to the wild cottontail rabbit 

 of our forests and fields is a matter of individual taste. The so- 

 called Belgian hare is merely a domesticated form of the wild rabbit 

 of Europe, long bred with special reference to the development of a 

 superior food animal. Its flesh is generally considered better than 

 that of the ordinary hutch rabbit. 



37183°— Bull. 496 — 12 q 



