OCR Text |
Show A Pest Brings Riches The lowly rabbit, which used to be the chief pest of farm-, ers in New Zealand and Austral, is now providing those people peo-ple with a good deal of prosperity. When rabbits were first introduced into the lands down under, they nearly ate the farmers out of house and home. So rapidly did they multiply that crops were devastated. Farmers used to organize great drives to round them up and exterminate them. Then someone discovered that America was a marvelous market for felt hats. And rabbit skins are used in the making mak-ing of felt. So, now, according to Major W. H. Cochrane, assistant secretary of the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, many shiploads of rabbit skins reach New York annually from New Zealand and Australia, to make hats for the American head. The result, of course, is that the same farmers who used to curse the rabbit are now making money off of him, and the ships that bring the pelts to this country are taking back autos, radios, plumbing equipment and other adjuncts of prosperity. ; " I i |