The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1913-07-12
is TEACHER
Paper Read by DR.. S. R. TOWnes, of
Union Church, Trade Day on
Tick Eradication.

| feel that do not need an in
PRODUCTION to this audience; for 1t
so happened that / was born four
miles north of here about 81 years
ago, and lived there until ten years
of age. Since that time, I've been
living in or near Union Church, in
the adjoining county Of Jefferson.
Many of your faces are not familiar
ones to me, because l left this
county so many years ago. How
ever, | have heard nay father speak
of many of you so many times that
| feel l ought to know you. whether
| do or not.
Now. my friends. getting rid of
the cattle tick in this county, as
well as all other counties, is abso-
lutely necessary for more reasons
than one. To begin with, it looks
as If cotton as a money crop is a
thing of the past. Of course, we
may be able in the future to raise
it again as we once did. and then
we may not. Naturally then, we
begin to look around for something
to take its place. We have tried
various and sundry methods of cul-
tivatlng the cotton, and all have
failed. We have tried all kinds of
substitutes, such as sorghum and
peanuts, etc., and, these too, have
not been a success.
Many of US then have turned our
attention to the cattle business, and
have been we'll pleased, so far,
with the results obtained. Our
climate, our soils and our natures
are all peculiarly adapted to cattle
raising. Some of us have cattle
that make their own living the en-
tire year, the only attention that
they receive is to milk them at the
proper time and turn them out
again. Our soils and seasons are
such that we can always expect a
crop Of hay and grass in abun-
dance. The long drouth may ruin
the corn and the bugs may eat up
the cotton; but we have always
plenty Of grass tor the stock.
By giving the cattle then the
same chance that we gave the cot
ton, we have something that is
more than substitute for cotton.
We fought the lice on cotton, the
army worm and boil weeviI, and
now we must fight the ticks. The
Government has spent thousands of
dollars in a vain effort to check the
ravages of the weevil; but in its
standard dipping solution, we have
one Of the greatest blessings of
modern times. 1t is blessing not
only to the poor suffering brutes; ;
but also to their owners, into whose
pockets they pour a rich harvest.
Now, the work in Jefferson coun-
ty has not been ideal at all; and
for this reason, believe that it
will do you fellows more good by
telling you Of our failures, than if
we had been more successful.
We adopted the tick law nearly
four years ago. The Government
put man In charge Of Adams and
Jefferson counties. One of his
first steps was to publish to the
people letter wherein he assures
them that he will not be harsh with
them. This is what | consider a
mistake. Instead, he should have
given them to understand that il
they violated any rule or regula-
tion, they would be punished.
Again. after all pastures were
quarantined. and some men refused
to dip their cattle, these men were
allowed to turn their cattle out il
the fall, just the same as those
who had dipped regularly. This
was another mistake. He had the
law all on his side and he should
have kept all rticky' cattle rigidly
quarantined until their owners
would be forced to clean them,
This led to much dissatisfaction,
not because Of the tick law; but
because Of it's lax enforcement.
II few neighbors dip their cat.
tie regularly d few weeks and have
their pastures and cattle free o1