Rabbits cute, but nuisance to the 1800s farmer

Starting in the early days of Stanislaus County, all farmers had one common enemy – the rabbit.

The cutest member of the rodent family, rabbits had many attributes that made them an eternal nuisance to the county farmer. Sharp front teeth that feasted on the shoots, roots and even seeds of a wide variety of crops. And the ability to reproduce like … rabbits led farmers in the area to fight their scourge by waging massed attacks against them.

Sometimes they would succeed and eradicate the problem; other times the campaign would suffer jaw-dropping setbacks.

At 7:30 a.m. on an October day in 1895, a group of 20 hunters gathered in front of the Turlock Hotel to prepare for the day’s rabbit hunt.

The hunters were divided into two groups, with J.W. Ward and T.H. Fulkerth picked as the captains. The rule was simple: Whichever group killed the most rabbits would have their dinner paid for by the other.

By the end of a long day of hunting, Fulkerth’s group was treated to dinner, winning by one rabbit: 207 to Ward’s 206. Treated at the Turlock Hotel, Ward’s party paid, local farmers were happy the pests had been eradicated for a while and the hunters were treated to an enjoyable social occasion.

A major rabbit drive was held in Modesto in 1915. In early August, 50 residents came together around the corner of Claribel and Oakdale Roads. Their plan was to form a line at “40-yard intervals” and “drive straight through to Claus Road on the main canal, 1 mile beyond.”

While the day’s drive was a success, there was one moment when they were dealt an unpleasant surprise. The hunt went well, with 259 rabbits killed along with two coyotes. However, the Modesto Evening News of Aug. 2, 1915, described what happened next.

“Those engaged in the drive had taken it for granted that when the rabbits were driven to bay on the bank of the main canal, the unbroken expanse of twenty-five feet of water would cause them to show the white flag and give it up as a bad job.”

Instead, the rabbits “just up and jumps half way across and swims the rest of the way, leaving the shooters standing in open-mouthed amazement on the far bank.” They watched as the rabbits fled across the fields. In spite of the setback, local farmers were happy with the results.

In other parts of the Valley even more massive hunts were held, including one in Chowchilla in 1917 when about 1,000 rabbits were captured.

In February 1922, the town of Delhi held a major rabbit drive that gathered more than 600 rabbits. Unlike some of the more bloodthirsty methods, Delhi’s residents sold the little creatures to markets in San Francisco.

Over time the campaigns against the rabbits thinned their numbers. That, along with the expansion of urban areas and other methods such as poisoning and trapping, caused the rabbit drives to finally die out. But when they were in full force, they provided both a needed relief from the pests and a social occasion for their communities.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Rabbits cute, but nuisance to the 1800s farmer."