The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1908-08-27

| reasons Tor such an opinion Ii
the first place we have a tick ir
our midst which, if not identified
with the fever tick of Texas, is a:
/ poisonous IN It's bite, tick which
mas infested the fields and pastures
land woods for time immemorial,
land will always continue to be
here, for it is indigenous to this
country, and periodically they
tcome and go. Seasons as well as
Fclimatic conditions produce them.
| As a wet season brings thousands
of mosquitoes, so will a warm win
ter bring myriads of ticks-ticks
THAT are death to horses as well as
cattle. Almost any kind of grease
or oil will remove them, as Mr..
Pettiborn suggests. The best I
have ever used is cotton seed oil
and kerosene-a pint of kerosene
to gallon Of oil.
/ do not write this article through
any spirit of controversy, but
simply as an expression of opin-
ions and facts, as we'll as for the
public good. Ask any OF the old
farmers of Mississippi about ticks,
and they will tell you that they
were here when their grandfathers
were boys, and unless the cattle,
as well as the horses, were occa-
sionallY salted with little sulphur
mixed with it and creased besides,
they would die from the effects of
tick poison. Years before the Tex
as tick was ever heard of in this
section of Mississippi, l have N.Y.
self seen horses and cattle, too, so
effeetually covered with ticks, that
"a tick for every hair upon the ami
mails bodies would be a fair esti-
mate. and when neglected death
surely followed.
Mr.. Pettiborn's idea of quaran-
tine and starvation in keeping out
and exterminating the ticks in Mis-
sissipPi, is wholly impractical.
Such a thing as starvation doesn't
exterminate ticks, for if we admit
such a proposition then they come
by evolution. Several years ago
we had a pasture on the back of
the plantation, near no other pas
ture, being surrounded by Gulf
waited fields, which became so in
tested with ticks that a horse or
cow pastured there. for week
would be literally covered,a ,and, like
Mr.. Pettiborn, we thought that we
could starve them out, so kept all
kinds of stock away from it in
closure for nearly year, but when
pastured again We found them just
as bad as ever.
AS to the lavish appropriation
above referred to, | cannot but re-
iterate that it is like want-only
throwing away the public funds. I
cannot but condemn such an ap-
preparation, for it is for an expert
ment, without the least practical
bility of success, and ] would not
at any time be surprised if our
government experts and scientists
would secure a like appropriation
for the elimination of the red bugs
in Mississippi. This is equivalent
to the tick problem and should
meet with the same consideration.
The best and only way to meet the
tick problem is with sulphur and
grease. This, however, will not
exterminate them, but it will check
and lessen them,
And now, Mr.. Editor, ! must
ask pardon for taking up SO much
of your valuable space, but the
isone of vital Importance
to both the cotton growers and
stock raisers of the state, that feel
warranted in the length of this, and
trust it may suggest new and better
thoughts and plans in the minds of
others.
A. T. MONTGOMERY. |
Argyle Plantation.