SEP 



THE RABBIT AS A FARM AND ORCHARD PEST. 



By D. E. Lantz, 

 Assist a )it, Biological Survey. 



lNTKODUCl:iON. 



The American farmer encounters many obstacles in the practice of 

 his calling. In addition to innumerable insect enemies and plant dis- 

 eases which assail his crops at every stage of growth, he has to con- 

 tend against great numbers of destructive rodents. Pocket gophers, 

 woodchucks, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, rats, mice, and rabbits 

 Jevy a heavy toll upon the products of field, garden, and orchard. No 

 actual statistics of the aggregate of annual losses due to rodent pests 

 in the United States are available, but as early as 1861 a writer in the 

 American Agriculturist estimated that rats alone caused losses of 

 $10,000,000 a year in the country.'* In Denmark the losses from rats 

 are estimated at $3,000,000 annually;^ while in France the total of all 

 losses from rats and mice has been placed at $40,000,000 per year.^ 

 Considering the vast territory of the United States and the great 

 numbers of her mammalian pests, the actual losses must be several 

 times as great as they are in France. 



Because of their wide distribution and great abundance, rabbits 

 hold a prominent place among rodent pests. They are larger than 

 rats and mice, and almost as prolific, and under some circumstances 

 inflict upon crops and trees damages greater even than those caused 

 by field mice. 



DISTRIBUTTON OF RABBITS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Rabbits are so widely distributed throughout the United States 

 that nearly all cultivated districts contain one or more species. They 

 occur also in the mountains and deserts remote from agriculture; 

 and usually, as new areas are brought under the plow, rabbits are 

 on the ground ready to attack the settler's first crops. 



The common gray rabbit, or cottontail (Lepus floridamis and sub- 

 species), occurs from the southern parts of Maine, New Hampshire, 



"American Agriculturist, 20, p. 44, 1861. 



& Dr. Adrien Loir in Jour. d'Agri. Trop., 3, p. 369, 1903. 



« Journ. Board Agr. Great Britain, 11, p. 50, 1904. 



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