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Show The Ladies Lift Bunny's Hide By Frederic J. Haskin. f WASHINGTON-, Oct. IS. The oltl nursery nur-sery rhyme about Renins a raboit tKm to wrap your baby bunting In has ceased to bo Action. Thousands of grownup grown-up babies aro trotting around tins tan wrapped in rabbit, skins, and thousands of American husbands are hunting for money enough to pay the resultant bills. J'Or a rabbit-skin coat, traveling under some alias, such as "sc-aline," near seal or coney, now costs anywhere from 5&d to $150. This rage for rabbit fur has grown up entirely since the beginning of the war, and has apparently not yet reached its height. It is the latest development m a long process by which the majority of the fair ones have come down from wearing seal and ermine and mink and fox, as they did a generation ago, to the condition condi-tion of being glad if they can get house-cat, house-cat, skunk, muskrat or rabbit furs without with-out bankrupting their husbands. Even the humble skunk and the musk-rat musk-rat are fast becoming scarce under tho pressure of a fashionable demand which makes it necessary for every woman to wear furs, not only in the winter, but even in midsummer, when the fad costs a good deal in perspiration as well as money. This rise of the humble bunny to a place of honor about milady's neck and shoulders is the one fortunate thing about this abnormal and unseasonable rage for furs. It has depleted the world's supply of nearly every other fur-bearing animal, because most of these animals are wild ones, and the high prices offered for their pelts have been an inducement to hunt them to extinction. True, some progress prog-ress has been made in domesticating several sev-eral species. There is a small industry in fox farming, skunks are raised in considerable con-siderable numbers, and a few mink are produced in captivity. One man in Ohio has made a success of raising bears on a farm. But the wild fur-bearers must st ill be relied upon for most of the supply, sup-ply, and all of them are steadily becoming becom-ing scarcer. The fur-bearing rabbit stands on an entirely different footing. He is essentially essen-tially a domestic aniimU, and has been for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Ilonco the sudden demand for his pelt h;s increased his numbers instead of decreasing de-creasing them. A whole new industry of rabbit farming has grown up in this country coun-try in the pat four yeaj-s. It has reached its greatest dimensions in certain states where there is a ready market for rabbit meat as well as for the fur. Ohio, Michigan Michi-gan and California are especially good rabbit states. A rabV'it show will be held in every county in Michigan this year. A great show was recently held in Cleveland, Cleve-land, which is a great rabbit counlry. Dallas, Dal-las, Texas, is pelting ready to hold a rabbit rab-bit show advertised as the greatest ever held anywhere. One expert on rabbits is scheduled to act as a judge at twenty-five twenty-five important shows this year Five years ago not half a dozen rabbit shows were held annually in the hole United Statf-s. The number of rabbits in the country has multiplied many-fold nobody knows how man-.-. ' AA'e even have rabbit kings and rabbit plutocrats now. For example, shortly he-fore he-fore the war a certain man of Belgian birth in New York observed with interest the growth of a demand for tanned rabbit sk:i.s. They were wanted then chiefly for trimmings, but this man saw that tne demand would prow because other furs were b-poming more and more hard to get. Furthermore, this man knew all about the preparation of rabbit skins. His futher had made a business of tanning tan-ning and dyeing tii'-m in Helgium, where tlu y have b-. en used to some oter.t for a long ti!n He therefore knew the value of a rabbit skin and how to treat it. He hired a barn in New Jersey, advertised tor iMbi'it skins and went to v,ork. In in IS lie m.i.le i27S,mn, He is advertising for ten miMlun rabbit skins this vcar. Rabbit fur is not a high quality fur. be;, properly clipped and dyed it Is often very pretty, and some verv attractive attrac-tive effecis mav he obtained by' combining combin-ing dnierent colors for examp'e. a coat mine of rabbit fur dyed hla'ck, and trimmed w,;h the fur of the bine rabbit in its natural color. Most rabbit fur is clipped and dved to resemble teal and ,so;i -v-il'iie" or near so.i!. There is a yr.uc iine;y whi.-h is used as an imitation imi-tation of ermine. Hci r.oiie of the rabbit rab-bit f.irs has any great dumMlilv real se..!s,i!n coat will l,yt ,,!n;ost a lifE'!-"i" A to... I coat cf muskrat which makes 'the best imitation of .al will Usl about half as long as seal. A rabh.t-skm Coal cannot r.e relied upon to last more than o-e or Two iM.wjiis. Furthermore, rabbit fur hes , own.' so that if it is ran, pled or run ned tbe v. rong way, it3 beauty Is rat Mind straight un, so that vou cm r-uh them .itj.cr :ly WKi,olu ;-.rrcctig their appc.arar.ee. '' i.iib The rabbit skin is at best prettv weak materiah The sl,ins of the vanoW nan rabbits are altogether too tender for use as .nr. 1 1 is only the Kurope a r: bit which is u.,ed for this pur se lU hide I.- about as eood :13 she. p'skin. bu not many as tons n the hides of nest fur-hear,,,,; ammals. "lS C ' I 'espMV the. e lir.nvhj.ks, the advent cf rabbit fur is dc-,.1, .!;,. a pool thinp H has founded a new industry , this coun-tiy coun-tiy 111 which almost anyone mav en-,ca wiln very lutle capital And the int-vl ado by product of rabbit fur is rabbit meat, which is nourishing and delicate In many states there is already a permi-nent permi-nent and dependable market for It-no,, ably l California, where rabbit Is listed in the market ipiota turns ovirv d ,v A good many people remember the rage for l.elpian bares which struck this country coun-try Homo fltleen or twenty vears e0 hveryone was poing to rale Help, an bar.s for the market and for home eon-sumption. eon-sumption. Hut at that l,ef aj mutton were cheap, and there was no market for rabbit skins. The Helglan hare was oy era d v ert ised, overrate. I and ultimately oyerpi oduocl. The result w ,a that many persons lost money and the Uclgiatl hare (.11 Into d, .repute The domestic rabbit makes his second debut in America under much more fa-vorable fa-vorable auspices. m,,,i is s,.,r,. ,,,u high, and rabbit skins are bringing prices thai soiiiollmcs r.a.ipo as high as Jl.i.O each. I ho Industry Is already on a sound mid apparently permanent tvis, In three or four stales, and Is sproadlnir rapidly, i'r. Ned Hearborn of (ho biological biolog-ical survey advises those who are Interested In-terested In rabbit farming , begin llw raising rabbits only for homo consumption, consump-tion, and to increase the sir.o of the operation op-eration a m Iho market develops. Ureed-liur Ureed-liur stock may now be sold at pood prices Thus, although rabbit fur docs not last long, it Is nlwaH easy lo produce mole of it. and to add a valuable Item lo the null, mill bill ot tare nl (he same time The Kuropcan domestic rabbit, upon vbtcll this new jtidusliy H founded Is a wonderful example ,,r what selective bl ling can do. The beginner who locks into the rablul business f,is hi,,, ..elf font, noted l,v I ,,. w i 1, 1 e r i i , p arletv of bleeds from which to choose. There Is II, a New Z.ealaud lied, the Siberian "W hile Iho I "itch rahbll. Iho American l:lue tho Himalayan rabbit, which Is white 'win, black spols; iho llelgian hare, (he Aneori rabbit, wilh lis long hair, and (he l-',,r'. Ilsh lop-ear, which cannot ,i,p hic'h enough (o pet lis ears off tho ground All of these, nnd son,,, fifteen or twenty olhors. are In reallly variations of (ho name rabbit. They are all .halved from the Kuronoan wild rahbll. '(ho Floii-.i lliants. which sometimes reach a wen-hl of twenty pounds each, are preferred tor rood p, , I poses, w hile Iho New .,, Ked an, I the A,,ie,,cau l,, ,, .'.,, 'v olinn lllue heioie (he war) are the f,. v'"-11" ""' '. K ,'' K -laphlcal names gnoti Ihesc rahbll,, have no Me. , , llloan oo l alh The New .ealand Ked never saw New .calami, nor has the Siberian rabbll any connection win, m. Many wealthy a I curs nro now eolm.-lu eolm.-lu for rahbll -ials,,:. and Ihh. Is ..' .. thing for Iho business. .,.. f., ,.'!,,,." breed r,,r show points ,,,) ,,,,, ,, ' ' " Iho Block up lo sl,,ii, a wealthy woman who own., an I Ino-acro e Uale on I Island inakea , a bh II . i K .. .,. chief hobby. She f h, her rcbhu w h her own diamond , ked l,., ,, lre,uenlly neen rnnulup uho,, will. I . big Belgian buck clasped in her silken j embrace. W hen conditioning hor best rabbits for a show she feeds them on a beaten mixture of fresh t???. ma i ted milk and sweet milk, which makes them ery fat and iletk. Bunr.y has not only pot ten into b.g business of late, but also into high society. |