Those Rabbits

A side industry popular among U. S. countryfolk is raising rabbits to sell for fur and meat. But last week into the bankruptcy court of East St. Louis, Ill., marched Mrs. Anna R. Brown of Chester, Ill., a rabbit-raiser of wide renown. She had debts of $39,570. Her only assets were 300 rabbits. Like other big rabbit-raisers, Mrs. Brown had done business in this fashion: Starting with a few rabbits of pedigreed stock, she would farm out pairs of their offspring to smaller raisers, promising to buy the grandchildren back at $2 a head.* Then she would market the lot in huge batches. Prices and customers at first were all Mrs. Brown could ask. Her rabbits multiplied with their well-known rapidity (six litters per year, of four to eight offspring per litter). But suddenly the booming U. S. rabbit industry became overproduced everywhere. And last week bankrupt Mrs. Brown explained: "About a year ago rabbits began coming in from everywhere, thousands of them, by parcel post, truck and express. I couldn't tell if they were the offspring of my rabbits or not, but the people had my contracts, and I had to take them. They ate me out of house & home, and wouldn't go when I turned them loose. I hauled them to St. Louis and sold them for 10-c- apiece, or gave them away to motorists. Nearly all these claims against me are for rabbits sent me by contract customers, as high as 1,000 from one customer. . . . Those rabbits!"

* Current market price: 4.sc per Ib. Full grown rabbits average 3 Ib.

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