The Port Gibson reveille., 1915-08-05

the tick is on the cattle, the size Of
the herd is kept down and the amount
of fertilizer produced is necessarily
limited
Ticks Live on Cows Blood.
Through years Of breeding for milk
production the dairy COW. when not
interfered with by the tick, has be-
come most efficient animal. But she
is also highly specialized; her nerv-
Gus system is such that even climatic
changes affect the milk flow. Thus
an irritated, nervous COW is likely to
be a liability rather than an asset.
! The cattle tick, even if 1t does not give
her the fever and kill her, irritates her
and makes her nervous, and also takes
a heavy toll Of blood. In so doing, the
tick saps the vitality of the animal and
reduces her milk flow; loss Of blood
means loss of milk. The tick, while
sucking blood, as has been pointed out,
may also transmit to the COW the
dreaded Texas fever. Thus the testi-
mony shows the tick is easily the
worst enemy of the COW in the in
tested part of the South.
Thousands of these robbers thrive
on cattle, pastures, feed lots, barn
yards and stables. If the cattle are
heavily infested, the ticks are sucking,
in small sups, 200 pounds of blood in
year from each 1,O0O-pound animal,
proportionately less, of course, from
! lighter animal animal, but the tick
takes all the blood it can get. All the
blood in a steer or COW at any one
| time weighs only about fifty pounds.
This means that the ticks take the
equivalent of all the blood of that an
imal, in small sups, four times every
year, and the animal must renew its
blood four times to feed the tick be-
fore any blood is left to go into meat
or milk. It takes feed and hay to
make blood The tick that steals blood
from cattle, therefore, steals the farm
er's money.
How the Ticks Multiply.
Each female tick, after being gorged
with blood, lays from 5000 to 1000
eggs in the grass. These eggs hatch
into seed ticks. The young ticks in
the grass have only six legs. They
lie in wait for the cattle to pass and
when they stop to Craze or lie in the
grass, the little ticks scramble aboard
and take their meals by sucking blood.
The ticks must have blood and plenty
of it or they will starve to death. At
ter a few weeks of boarding on the cat
tie they become big ticks and have
grown two more legs. Then the en-
gorged ticks drop of into the grass
and the females lay great quantities
Of eggs, and the costly circle con
tinues.
Cooperate to Fight the Tick.
A dairyman singie-handed can rid
his cattle of ticks but this requires
much more work on his part than
when the community or county COOP
crates to free the whole territory.
The cost of the dipping vat is shared
and the cost per head becomes almost
nominal. The first step for the dairy
or stock man who wishes to aid in
saving the $50,000,000 board bill the
South is paying for the tick is to get
his neighbor interested in the fight
against the tick. Then he should in
terest people about the county. The
department Of agriculture bears part
of the cost of Kidding the county Of
ticks by sending without expense its
field men to help build watts and to
supervise the dipping Of the cattle.
The cost to the county is only for
vats, or say $50 to 500, and the
arsenic for dipping, which costs only
5 cents for enough to dip each head
times enough to free it from ticks.
The total cost of eradicating ticks
from cattle by dipping is so cents a
head, including time in driving them to
the vat. Some counties have reported
to the department. that the cost to the
county and its citizens was only 90
cents an animal Once the farm and
} community are free from ticks every
precaution should be used to keep the
ticks away.
For full particulars on how to end
the ticks feast on your cows and IN
: your community, write postcard to
: the Bureau OF Animal Industry, U. 8.
Department Of Agriculture, Washing
ton, D. G. The department will be
, glad to send you Farmers Bulletins
! Nos. 693, Eradication Of the Cattle
Tick Necessary for Profitable Dairy
ing; $50, Texas or Tick Fever; $50,
i Beef Production in the South; 49S,
Methods Of Exterminating the Texas
Fever Tick; Special Circular, Effects
Of Tick Eradication Upon the Cattle
Industry Of the South; and Circular on
) Progress and Results Of Cattle-ticB
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