Cottontail Rabbits in Relation to Trees and Farm Crops

This 1916 USDA Farmers' Bulletin offers a fascinating window into early 20th-century American agriculture and the anxieties of farmers grappling with wildlife. Lantz, writing with the confident practicality of an era that saw nature as something to be managed, catalogues the cottontail's habits with meticulous attention: its breeding cycles, dietary preferences, and the devastating efficiency with which it decimates young orchard trees and tender crop shoots. The recommended solutions range from 'rabbit-proof fencing' and protective tree washes to trapping, hunting, and the strategic use of poison. What emerges is not merely a guide to pest control but a snapshot of a particular relationship between humans and the natural world, one where the line between valuable wildlife and agricultural menace was constantly negotiated. For historians of agriculture, environmental scholars, or anyone curious about how previous generations understood their ecosystem, this bulletin reads as both period artifact and surprisingly relevant meditation on the challenges of coexistence.