The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-05
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Ticks
 Just at present ticks are Scklish
 business in Jefferson county. l
 | II you don't believe 1t, ask the board
 of revenue.
 Mrs. Mathis has said that cow-ticks and politics are the bane of Alabama.
 What Is tick? It's one of the vari-
 ous acaridan arachnids, dwelling on plants and attaching themselves to the
 skin of man and other animals. in which
 they bury the head and suck the blood.
 Now, If you don't know what tick is,
 don't blame me, for I've done my best
 to tell you. In studying the question, please remember also that the cattle tick
 Is an ixodid mite.
 | I'm nothing if not scientific. I don't,
 however, happen to know what part
 ixodid plays in tick life, but I know mite
 means he is able to do a mighty lot of
 harm.
 Every reform must have slogan. Here
 Is the one behind tick eradication: For
 prosperity, dip that tick" and so the
 state and the government experts are
 striving to dip the tick out of Alabama s
 milk and butter.
 l Just at present here in Jefferson
 county there is strong effort on foot
 to take the ticks out of politics. Ex-
 perts believe that if they can get the
 officeholders to cut out politics, they can
 rid the county of COW ticks. l Some go so far as to advise that if an officeholder is too politicky that he ought
 to be dipped at least once a month for a year until he is no longer danger in his community
 1 Experts have demonstrated that tho
 cattle tick is great hindrance to the
 development of the cattle raising industry
 in the south. The sight of ticks on cat | tie is so common that many farmers do
 not regard them as harmful and it is 1 well known that few ticks may remain on cattle quite long time without do- 1 ing any noticeable damage. The ticks. nevertheless, are the carriers of Texas fever, and even in so-called immune cat tie they irritate the skin and draw blood that would otherwise produce milk or flesh.
 1 Texas fever was probably introduced into the United States with the importa- tions of cattle by the Spaniards during the early colonization of Mexico and southern United States. Texas fever is a very serious obstacle to the cattle indus try of the south. Above the latitude where the cattle tick is destroyed by the cold of winter the disease can be con trolled by keeping southern tick-infested cattle from passing through the country during certain seasons. It Is also known | that by severing the relations of the | fever tick and native cattle the former ! may be exterminated, thus making it pos- sible to eradicate the disease, and thereby
 to remove constant menace to the 1 southern cattle breeder, feeder, and dairyman.
 I The economic aspect of the tick prob lem Is unquestionably of the greatest
 practical interest, since the fundamental l importance of all the other questions which surround 1t depends upon the &C., 1 tual money value involved.s It would | therefore seem advisable to furnish 1 few statistics showing the financial loss sustained by the country as result of | the presence of this parasite. It Is well known that those animals coming from an infected district and sold in the southern pens of northern stockyards bring an average of one-fourth to one | half cent less per pound than the quoted
 market price, Judge B. M. Allen, how
 ever, because his cattle are dipped, re gently sold big lot in St. Louis for
 nearly 10 cents per pound. It costs more
 to feed the ticks than 1t does to kill
 them. Which do you prefer to do? l
 | How does the tick work? He is just
 as reliable in his ticking as true, tried
 Ingersoll He tick-tocks day and night.
 The baby tick crawls up from the grass 1! on the COW or steer and instantly begins
 to gorge itself with blood. When the mature female tick is gorged with blood she is also full of eggs. She drops off the al1mal and lays from 5000 to 5000 eggs
 on the ground. These eggs hatch into baby ticks, blood hungry little specks.
 The baby tick must have blood before 1t can grow It waits in the grass and 1 weeds until an animal gives 1t a chance to get aboard.
 When 1t gets aboard, you might as
 we'll start the alarm clock, for the work he does to a COW is alarming Instantly it begins to suck blood to be used in breeding more ticks to suck more blood. l Ticks eat your money by sucking from your cattle tho blood that should so to make beef or milk. The tick that steals your cows blood steals your money. The tick prevents the full milk can by suck ing blood that ought to go to make milk
 and butter fat in your dairy herd l The cattle tick wastes part of every pound of feed you use. It initiates your cattle, gives them Texas fever, keeps them scrawny. punctures their hides, and
 forces the adoption of quarantine regu- lations which lower prices. The tick, therefore, is reducing your income from beef, milk, butter, and hides. You cant I raise ticks ard cattle on a farm profit
 ably at the same time These robbera