Durant weekly news. (Durant, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 190?-1944, 1916-02-11
SOME INFORMATION ABOUT
THE TROUBLESOME TICKS
Department of Agriculture Gives In
teresting Facts and Figures About
the Little Chaps that Suck the Life
Blood Of { ehCattle.

The following bulletin, just re-
ceived by this paper ,boils down the
cattle-tick situation and expresses the
matter in pretty clear terms:
"If one of your steers or dairy
cows got bad cut and was bleeding
nearly quart of blood a day, you'd
do something about it in a hurry.
You'd know that such loss of blood
would weaken the animal, prevent
its putting on weight, and. in the case
of the COW, you'd soon see the milk
flow fall Off. If you couldn't handle
the wound yourself you'd think it
good investment to pay veterinar-
ian from so cents to one dollar, or
more, to stop the bleeding.
"Ticks have the same effect on a
steer or COW os such wound, but
the difference is that you don't see
the blood dripping because it flows
into the tick. Every tick bite is a
tiny wound on the animal through
which blood is constantly being
drawn. These tiny wounds and the
drawing of this blood irritate the an
imal and weaken it just the same as
the wound. The wound, of course,
may become infected and make the
animal very sick, but the tick in addi-
tion to causing blood to flow may
give the naimal Texas fever and even
kill it.
"This Is no ia theory. Actual ex-
Iperiments show that where an ami
nal is heavily infested with ticks
they will draw as much as 200 pounds
of blood from a 100O-pound steer.
lOf course they do not draw this all
at once, but get it in tink sucks. Fig
lures show that the blood in steer
at any one time weighs about SO
pounds. Where the ticks are very
numerous and very busy, therefore,
tthey force the animal to renew its
blood about four times a year. This
Imeans that blood that should go to
make blood or milk goes into fatten'
ling ticks. An actual experiment de-
monstrated that a tick-infested steer
which weighed only 730 pounds anc
was scrawny animal, when freed
from tick by being dipped in the ar
senical dipping bath gained SS'
pounds in weight in two months.
'The price that you'd pay veter
Ainarian for curing a wound, or tina
lyou would spend for linaments an'
cloths to cure the wound yourself
= would more than pay for dipping thu
a ticky cattle, and save this terribl
S drain on their blood and strength
1.-The trouble in driving the animal L
1.-THE dipping vat and letting it swim
Through would be less than treating
1.-THE wound.
"It costs only fifty cents head a
g most, including the first cost of dip
: lping watts, to clear cattle OF thes
Is lbloodsuckers. 1t will cost your coun
rlty only $50 TO 500 to build dir
Iping vat, and you can figure just ho'
lmuch this first cost per head is if d
= lvided among all the cattle near tn
q vat. After the vat is built, cents
b head will pay for arseic enough
o lrid your county of ticks.
moreover. when beef animi
n has been freed from ticks, because
can be sold in the open pens at th
. stockyards in competition with othC
y free cattle. II brings from S5 to 81
u more per head than when offered Il
m immediate slaughter only from
'. quarantine pen. 1t costs less to shi
y tick-free sattle than ticky cattle, b
I. cause ticky cattle have to be dippe
!. under quarantine restrictions. whiC
= add greatly TO the cost, and make Il
lanimal worth less at home and eau
lel b to bring less net profit at the pacl
a. ling house"