The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1908-12-18
THE CATTLE TICK

y
journal reaches 80 large a number
of readers in about the hest natural
cattle raising section in all America
may | not beg a little space wherein
to discuss the subject of the splen-
etc fever i'm domestic cattle. and
point out to your readers and the
public the cause, the cost Of, and
the remedy for the immense evil
which is alone caused by the preva-
lence of the pestilent cattle tick?
THE CAUSE.
The true and only cause of the
splenetic or Texas fever is a micro
scOpic germ which, because it is not
visible to the naked eye, was for
long not even suspected to exist,
hat in the hands of trained experts
the great microscopes have set
tied the question forever. These
poisonous germs have alone been
transmitted by that peculiar tick. a
parasite of domestic cattle, which is
known to science as margOropus
Annulatu;" and further, these pes
thence bearing ticks have been car
ried and scattered all over and all /
through the South. from the Rio
Grande, across which they came
into Texas from Old Mexico, on the
bodies of long horned cattle, even
to the shores of the Chesapeake. by
the careless shipment and move
ment of long-horned cattle, and by /
suffering such cattle to run at large. |
and in no other way in the world.
This is the cold, clear decision and |
verdict of positive science.
THE COST.
The cost Of this cattle contagion, |
a most expensive nuisance and pesti- /
lence, has been a matter of appall-
ing magnitude. The experts of the
United States Agricultural Depart
ment, after a most painstaking in
vestigation. place their best estimate
Of the loss to the cattle owners of
the tick-infected States and sections
at not less than $500 per head,
yearly. And because there are in
A. 4:Oi~ s,,Foo4oJ C4o4oc oF A. CO,,4l,
about 10000, 900 head of horned
cattle, and about 100000 of these
are owned in Mississippi alone, why,
the cold result is that the yearly
loss to the entire South approx
mates the immense sum of $780,
900, 900. OF this great loss and
waste, and utterly useless tax, the
share of Mississippi is close on to
SO, 00O,00 yearly, whether her
people know and realize it or not.
What are the various causes of these
great losses? Well, a vast number
Of these cattle in the aggregate do
each year lie down and die Of the
pestilence; and this is an immense
and very dead loss. Then, too, a
still greater number. which do not
actually die, are so injured. stunt
ed and poisoned as to be of little or
ne value thereafter. This. too. in
the aggregate is an immense loss.
Again, the great deterioration in the
character of cattle which is going
on must be considered. 1t is fast
reducing the cattle of these States
into a race of runts and scrubs. Mr..
Editor, we can grade down as sure
ly, and even more easily than we
can grade up. And then there is
the loss of milk and butter, both in
quality and quantity. in hundreds
of thousands of milk COWS; and the
losses from fees, and cattle pens,
and higher freight rates, and vexa-
ton, and costly delays, and a dozen
other real but unitemized losses, in
cident to the quarantine established
/ by the United States government
to prevent the spread of the conta-
gion, which quarantine has come to
stay, ike Gordon of steel around
Mississippi. just as long as the cat
tie ticks are allowed to remain in
your great State.
All these losses make a mighty
aggregate; but there is one cause of
loss so clear and potent that even
the blindest must see it, if he has
the sense to see that shrinkage in
price of cotton, from 10 cents down
to or 5 cents, would be a calamity
and vast injury to the cotton raiser
This great loss is the shrinkage in