Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-10-28

TEXAS CATTLE TICK ENLARGED.
owners of the great stockyards at Fort
Worth. The method adopted is to swim
the cattle through large tank contain
ing mixture which it is hoped will de-
stroy the ticks ON them. The ST. Louis
Post-Dispatch gives an account of the
experiments, with vivid picture of the
horrible tick and diagram of the dip
ping apparatus.
The Post-Dispatch says: These exper
iments are made by dipping the cattle
infested with ticks into carbolic prep
aration, "chloro- naphtholeum, " manu-
featured by New York company. To
properly make these interesting tests
required the building of special pens
and shoots and a large vat to contain
the chemical for dipping.
There are number of these new pens
and watts, all located in the quarantine
division of the yards. From the pens a
wide shoot leads to smaller pen near
the head of the dipping vat, just large
enough to contain about 100 cattle.
This pen converges to narrow shoot
about 90 feet long that leads directly
into the vat The vat proper is 26 feet
long and 10 feet deep. It is of consid-
cradle width at the top, but narrows to
about 2 feet at the bottom. 1t is built
of cypress and is alright and lies most
~ beneath the surface of the ground,
only few feet of the walls projecting
above When ready for use, the vat con-
tains about feet of fluid.
-<,Fx1 y l.
is interesting. The cattle used were
brought from north of the present quar-
antine line and from counties recently
quarantined The cattle were unloaded
direct from the cars into the pens used
for the boarding of southern cattle
They were then driven by way of
shoot into the pen at the head of the
vat. From this they were driven through
the narrow shoot, one at a time, en- to
metal covered trapdoor that lies hori-
zontally with one end projecting over
the vat. This door is fixed ON horizon
tai pivot, and when the animal reached
the far end his weight would bear it
down and before he would know it he
would plunge head first into the chem
ical bath below.
The animal is completely submerged
by the fall into the six feet of fluid and
upon rising cannot escape from the in
voluntary bath without swimming over
90 feet to the other end of the vat, where
the ascent is an inclined plane provided
with footholds. At the top the steer is
allowed to stand for awhile and drip,
when the gate is opened and he is al
lowed to go with his fellows into pens
prepared for their reception. These pens
are numbered, and the cattle in each are
carefully examined at certain intervals
after being dipped and notes taken.
They are driven back to the vat and re-
dipped if found necessary.
So far it does not appear that the ex-
periments have proved a decided sue
cess, the end in view having been only
partially attained A large number of
the ticks on the cattle experimental
upon have, however, been killed and
the rest are more or less affected.
Experiments are now being continued,
with the addition of West Virginia
. Black oil, which, it is promised, will
destroy all the ticks.
In addition to making the expert
ments relating to Texas fever DIR. Nor
gard will from time to time while in
Fort Worth give examples of the proc
ess employed in inoculating cattle to
prevent blackleg. This disease has been
the cause of great mortality among
cattle in widely separated districts of