“Not all introductions worked well. Rabbits were an unmitigated environmental disaster. Unchecked by any natural predator, they bred at a staggering rate and chewed their way across vast areas of pastureland as well as any garden that came their way.”

When possums were introduced in 1837 to start a fur industry, no one predicted that these Australian neighbours would naturalize with destructive enthusiasm, wreaking havoc on gardens and bush alike.

Maize and pumpkin seeds were soaked in water for several days and then blackened with tar before planting – the most effective way to deter rats, mice and birds.

Attempts to control them by introducing ferrets, weasels and stoats did much more harm than good. Although these predators probably killed a reasonable number of rabbits, they also devastated populations of kiwi and raided the nests of flighted birds.

For those dependent on their gardens for fresh food, it was often a case of feast or famine… (One settler wrote), “Strawberries were now so plentiful that… I made 287 lbs of jam…”

Even where the land was more receptive, settlers soon learned to take some precautions before planting their vegetables.

Up to 20 million possums a year were killed during the height of the fur trade, but this barely checked their rapid expansion.

While the nominal strength of a country is represented by its numbers and resources, this muscular development is dependent on the state of its internal organs and nerve-system – upon its stability of control, morale, and supply.

Vengeance does not subtract any numbers from the equation of murder; it only adds them.

I’ll have the chance to do a production number on A Capitol Fourth.

Later, a large band of Christians mounted an attack on this native lord, butchering him along with vast numbers of his people and taking all the survivors into slavery, where they duly perished,

Voluntary self-directed religion was more dangerous to the Church than any number of infidels.

Welcome to the psychiatric hotline: if you are obsessive compulsive press one repeatedly. If you are schizophrenic listen closely and a little voice will tell you which number to press.

So at the end of the day, our number 1 goal, our top priority, is to motivate American youngsters to reject the abuse of illegal drugs, tobacco and alcohol. All three of them are illegal behaviors.

You can’t become a decent horseman until you fall off and get up again, a good number of times. There’s life in a nutshell.