The Florida agriculturist., 1905-12-27
The Cattle Tick War.


endeavor to help in building up the
business we have printed several ar
ticles on the subject and expect to
continue to do so whenever we can
find anything that seems to be suited
to that purpose. In the last number
of the Rural New Yorker we find
something that seems to us worthy
of a place in our columns The editor
says:
The article on the next page is a
fair statement of the cattle tick prob
lem which confronts the South This
little insect has prevented the South
ern states from occupying the posi-
ton in beef and milk production to
which their climate and soil entitle
them. Here we have a large section
of the country held up in its develop
ment BY an insect which can with
thorough work be exterminated. 1t
is too large problem for the South
alone, and the Federal government
should take hold of the matter, just
as it should aid in destroying the
Gypsy moth in New England.
The article to which he alludes is as
follows:
The Southern States Association of
Commissioners of Agriculture held its
seventh annual meeting in Richmond,
Va, November 22-24, and had a most
successful and entertaining meeting.
While tobacco, fruits, dairying, cotton
and the boil weevil had its share of
the programme immigration led in
interest, with the cattle tick close
second. the latter being considered a
matter for immediate solution, and of
great practical value, in connection
with the improvement of farming
methods by diversifcation of crops IN
the South especially as supplementary
to the raising of the peculiarly South
ern crops Inasmuch as the other
topics considered were more or less
local in their application, and the cat
tie tick" question does have more or
less bearing upon the entire cattle
industry of states contiguous to and
even remote from the cotton growing
states, and since congress will be
asked to appropriate considerable
sums in ensuing years for the erad1ca-
ton of this pest, it may be of some in
terest to enter into fuller discussion
of the matter.
Rather unexpectedly to all who have
not been. COnyeTSant with Inc SuDJeCt,
the cotton boil weevil has been the
chief exciting cause leading 10 de
sire for Improvement in cultural meth
ods, and for the production OF more
cattle to consume the products of
rotation crops throughout Texas and
Louisiana. While the Experiment
Station of Louisiana has demOnstra-
ted that cattle which top" the market
may be raised in that state. it has also
experienced the relentless fact that
the cattle tick handicaps all the eff
forts of the planter in that direction
and that the ticks must be extermlna-
ted by concerted state and Federal
action before any marked and perma-
nent Improvement can be made. That
such tick eradication is ent1relv feast
BILE over large acreas and ultimately
in all of the South has been amply
demonstrated by North Carolina
where: Veterinarian TAFT Butler, acting
under the Commissioners of Agr1cul-
ture, has eliminated the tick from the
pastures and cattle of twelve coun-
ties, and is continuing the work il
. other counties, any of which equal the
areas of small states. The meeting o1
the Commissioners of Agriculture OF
eleven states to discuss and finally tC
ask for an appropriation for the Grad
,~,+,o,, Of cattle ticlyc tha cT1lr11Ir1a a