Welsh Journals

THE BALANCE OF NATURE ON THE FARM* I. THOMAS Infestation Control Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food The rabbit The rabbit in Britain is believed to have been introduced by the Normans (Thompson & Worden, 1956). Such an event as the introduction of an important new species into a community, is clearly a change in the balance of nature. What has this meant to agriculture ? At first wild rabbits were kept in small communi- ties in circumscribed warrens and they were not unreasonably regarded as a useful additional source of food because they did not take the place of animals which were more economic and better convertors of herbage. Warrens were usually constructed in coastal areas and along the boundaries of parishes where the activities of the rabbits would not impinge upon agriculture as then practised. In the Middle Ages rabbits were regarded as a delicacy and their value as food was very high. In the United Kingdom a rough balance-sheet has been drawn up (Thompson & Worden, 1956). On the credit side the rabbit may be said to have been worth about £ 15 m. per annum to the community.; this includes the meat value, the fur value and the value of the finished products produced from the fur. The value of the raw material was only a fraction of the total and the income from rabbits actually received by agriculture was probably less than £ 2 m. per annum. In addition there are on the credit side certain intangible factors the value of which it is difficult to estimate-the pleasure afforded to children by the sight of live bunnies the sport they afford to many a countryman, the training of gun dogs and the additional protein which might not otherwise be consumed. Last but not least perhaps I should add that the shooting of rabbits is perhaps the townsman's easiest method of satisfying his primaeval hunting instinct. Put a townsman in the country and it is sur- prising how quickly he gets the habit of walking around with a gun- after all most town men are only one or two generations removed from the country. The question is-how much are we as a country prepared to pay for these pleasures ? In France members of La Chasse come from town and country and freedom to hunt' was one of the rights fought for in the Revolution. On the debit side the damage to crops has been variously estimated at between £ 45 m. and £ 60 m. per annum. This includes damage to trees-the annual cost of protecting 750,000 acres of State-owned plantations is about £ 500,000. The damage Extracts from paper read at a meeting of the British Association at Sheffield on 3 August, 1956.