| Show HUNTING THE jackrabbit JACK RABBIT story of famous baya sport la a colorado town when the special train bringing the visiting hunters reached lamar there was a brass band at the station and the brass band was there when alicy left the merchants closed their store stores s and the people threw open their houses for the entertainment of their guests after the hunt began the irregular discharge of the rilles in the sand hills around lamar reminded one of picket firing when a large party of gunners found a stretch of prairie where the rabbits were thick the report of the guns sounded like a general engagement though the rabbit hunt is a fixed annual event in lamar and rabbits are killed by thousands there seems to be no decrease in the number they multiply so rapidly during the summer months that it becomes necessary to make some such organized attack on them for they are becoming as great a nuisance as they are in australia the rabbits breed on the grassy plains above the canals where they stay until their forage fails them then they gather in the alfalfa fields which accounts for their being so numerous at this season of the year says harpers weekly atthe at the beginning of the hunt the wagons began coming in at four and continued until nine at night with heaping loads of the slain furry enemies of the farmer the cleaners began their work with the first wagon load and worked bravely but the odds were against them and they were soon half buried in the mass of rabbits awaiting preparation for shipment at the first days hunt fully two thousand were killed no wagon brought in fewer than one hundred rabbits and one went as high as four hundred and fifty about three thousand pounds A great number of rabbits were slain which were nat brought in all records were broken at this hunt and not a single accident occurred to mar the pleasure of the participants when the spring comes and the fresh green grass comes up the jack rabbits appear in large numbers and begin to nibble on the bark of the young fruit trees and the vines whole orchards are destroyed by them if you were to walk through a large vineyard you might not see one rabbit although hundreds might be around you they secrete themselves very cleverly in the grass and being so nearly the color of the ground are hard to detect they lie close with their large ears flat upon their backs until disturbed and one can almost walk over them before they will move |
