Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1914-01-16

only about fifty cents per head so that
if the counties make systematic cam
paign to eradicate the tick, the in
crease in value of the hide alone would
pay for the cost of tick eradication and
leave the farmer a net profit of about
seventy-six cents per hide.
The hide situation is becoming
rather serious. A prominent tanner
in Pennsylvania states:
For the class of leather we make
we prefer southern hides for chronic
on account of the close texture and
fine grain, but on account of the ticks
we have had to practically stop pur-
chasing southern hides"
This is particularly significant IS
the demand for chrome leather is in
creasing so that the normal demand
for southern hides will be still further
decreased.
A large percentage of the chrome
leather now produced is finished with
the grain left on so that all imper-
fections and tick marks on the grain
side show very plainly. In the old
days when all the leather for uppers
was made from bark.tanned stock, all
leather was buffed and the grain was
removed. For this leather tanners
could use cheap hides that were
covered with imperfections and tick
marks and make fairly good leather.
The situation today, as 1T has been
explained, is very different as the pub
lie is demanding more and more
grained feathers for which large pro-
portions of southern hides will not
be available until the tick is eradi-
Gated.
While good work has been done in
all states, the splendid work in Ten
nessee will without doubt, make this
the first state to be entirely free from
quarantine for ticks. 1t already has
eradicated the tick in every county,
except one, all that now remains under
quarantine being small part of
Marion county. All of the other af-
fected counties were released on Sep
TENDER first from quarantine.
According to the specialists of the
department of agriculture, it has cost
less than so cents per head to eradi-
cate the tick in Tennessee and the cat
tie owners as a result have gained not
less than $500 per head, thus adding
to the value of their stock. There are
more than 100000 cattle in the state
and the immediate benefit TO the own
ers has been not less than $780, 900.
The cost of tick eradication has been
only $250,000 so that the investment
paid for itself nearly fourteen times
over in a very short time. This does
not include the additional profits which
come from the fact that now that the
tick is eradicated more cattle can be
raised on each farm and that the cul-
tivated fields are made more produc-
tive by the increase of the amount of
fertilizer now available
In addition to the actual profit
gained by the improvement of the cat
tie stock, there is a great increase to
be obtained in the average production
of corn, cotton and every other crop
by restoration to the soil of fertilizer
in the form of manure. This is an
other very important reason why the
south will profit by devoting it's ener-
gies to eradicating the tick, and thus
increase the yearly output of cattle.
According to the specialists, tick
eradication is of such vital Importance
to every one of the southern states
that no let up should be made until
the complete destruction of every tick
is accomplished. AS soon as each
state succeeds in this it will be well
on the way toward the successful de-
velopment of its cattle-raising.
On September l, 9,191 square miles
in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Geor.
gia and South Carolina were released
from quarantine, making a total of
196,395 square miles. which have been
freed from the cattle tick and re-
leased from quarantine since the work
of tick eradication began in 1906.