RABBITS IN BRITAIN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 3 August 1937, Page 4

RABBITS IN BRITAIN.

4 LAND LAID WASTE.

It is estimated that wild rabbits in Great Britain cost farmers and landowners £50.000.000 annually. Patrick Murphy, in a special article in the Daily, Mail, states. that there are areas in Wales where good fields have been turned into, derelict, useless land by rabbits. 110 knows a farm in West Sussex, which i« ono of tho worst affected areas, on which 2000 rabbits were shot and. trapped , last winter, though the farm is little more than 100 acres in area. “Apart from the direct damage done to grasslands, and the awful destruction that the rabbits create among corn .crops and garden produce, the rabbits are one. of the most fruitful causes of coccidiosis—a disease which decimates whole flocks of poultry,” he says. Tho report of a select committee of the House of Lords on agriculture (damages by rabbits) is at present being considered. One of its recommendations is that legislation should be- introduced to enable . rounty councils to destroy rabbits on properties. Strong opposition to such a Bill is expected, as it is undeniable that > wild rabbits are ‘‘the poor man’s chicken,” and that the extermination of them would abolish a great supply of cheap foed for the poor.