The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1908-12-10
CATTLE TICKS

only one cent per pound. And yet
here is a proven average loss of five
|1dollars per head, and this for 2.000,-
600 head makes a clear total loss
of $40, 200, ,006. And this loss In con-
tinuous, and year by year, till IL is
cut out and stamped out ii must. like
a wounded snake, drag it's slow and
Shiny length along.
The Remedy But Is there any
sure and certain and effective rem
edy? Yes. indeed. And 1t Is SO sim
pie it can be stated IN just three
words, viz, grease and quarantine.
Yes, any oily grease, such as bacon
grease, cottonseed oil or crude Pc
tro1eum, will surely and speedily kill
all ticks on the body of COW, calf or
steer to which il is honestly applied,
and which it is made TO reach and TO
cover. II has always done so. Do
you doubt it? Well, just try il and
be convinced.
Quarantine.-But the quarantine,
and why? l answer. we have seen
just how the ticks have been spread
and scattered. Now stop, at all haz-
ards, all tick infected cattle from
being moved or shipped by boat or
rail, and utterly prevent all such cat
tie from running at large. until such
cattle have abolutely been disinfect-
ed and the further spread OF the
ticks will be simply impossible. The
use of grease can and will kill them
on live cattle, and quarantine can
utterly prevent the spreading and
scattering. But even more, by quar-
antine all tick-infected grounds and
pastures can be utterly freed of the
ticks. But how and why? Because
no female tick ever lays her myriad
of eggs on the body of cow or steer;
never. But when the female is
5000 eggs, she always by instinct
crawls out and falls of on the ground
and there lays her eggs. And then
she dies. Scores of ticks so fall off
And soon that pasture is sown with
their eggs, and in usually fifteen 10
thirty days all those eggs will hatch
out into very small but hungry seed
ticks, and presently that pasture will
literally swarm with seed ticks, and
when a fresh cow or steer comes
these seed ticks will by hundreds
crawl upon the body. They will get
down TO the skin, and will there bite
and bore and suck blood and grow
and breed again. And meanwhile
they will surely bite into that COW
or steed the germs, the very virus.
Of the Texas fever.
Here, Mr.. Editor, is set out in few
est words the very genesis, the very
plan, of nature in tick and Texas
fever propagation. And the vital
remedy is always grease and quar-
antine.
Local Application.-But how about
Mississippi? Well, it is, or ought TO
be, most Yitally interested. We have
seen she has about 100000 head
of horned cattle. and when we con-
slider her genial climate and her
short winters, and remember that she
is capable of cheaply producing any
and every kind of cattle food and TO
rage, we see she has the capacity 20
breed, TO feed, TO fatten for market, |
at least five times as many. She
might produce and fatten 10000. 600 |
of greatly better cattle, which would !
bring the highest price, 10 the vast
of the entire State and |
TO the great enrichment of all her |
cattle raisers. But the State is ter
ribly handicapped by cattle ticks |
When will the ticks be stamped out |
and the quarantine. lifted? And 1 /
answer, never, just so long as the |
people look on in cool indifference, /
and ticky cattle run at large, undis-
turbed, in the State The United
States is ready and willing TO aid the
people in tick eradication. But the
State and county authorities and all
the citizens must cooperate. Con- /
gress unanimously passed an appro-
priation of $250.000 to be used this
fiscal year. We hope for 100000 /
next year. But under the law Missis- /
sippi must actively cooperate. or it
can't get a dollar.
This letter has been written to lay
the cold facts before the people I
Print it for them, Mr.. Editor, and
do you comment and let them critf- /
else the letter and the writer.
Yours truly, A II. Pettibone,
u. s. Dept. of Agriculture. 4