The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-09-05
CATTLE TICKS WORSE
THAN A WOUND

II one Of your steers or dairy cow;
got bad cut and was bleeding near
ly quart Of blood day, you'd Go
something about it in hurry
You'd know that such loss Of blood
would weaken he animal. preven,
1t putting on weight, and, in the
case Of the COW, you'd soon see the
milk flow fall off. If you cou.4n :
handle the wound yourself you i
think It good investment 70 pay q
veterinarian from 50 cents to 81, or
more, % stop the bleeding
Ticks have the same effect Un q
steer Or ! COW as 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 lrritate the
animal and weaken it just the same
as the wound. The wound, Of
course, may become infected and
make the animal very sick. but tha
tick in addition to causing blood to
flow may give the animal Texas
fever and even kill it.
This is not theory. Actual ex-
periments show that where an animal
is heavily infested with ticks they
draw as much as 200 pounds of blood
year from a 1000 pound steer. Of
course they do not draw this all at
once, but get it in tiny sucks. Fig
ures show that the blood in a steer
at any one time weighs about so
pounds. Where the ticks are very
numerous and very busy, therefore.
they force the animal to renew its
blood four times year. This means
that blood that should 60 to make
milk or meat goes into fattening
ticks. An actual experiment showed
that a tick-infested steer which
weighed only 73C pounds and was a
scrawny animal, when freed from
ticks by being dipped in the arsenical
dipping bath gained 285 pounds in
weight in two months.
The price that you'd pay a veteri-
marian for curing a wound, or that
you would spend for liniment and
cloths to cure the wound yourself,
would more than pay for dipping
ticky cattle, and save this terrible
drain on their blood and strength
The trouble in driving the animal
to the dipping vat and letting it swim
through would be less than treating
the wound.
1t costs only so cents a head at
most, including the first cost of dip
ping watts, to clear cattle of these
bloodsuckers. 1t will cost your
county only $50 to S10O to build =
dipping vat, and you can figure now
much this first cost per head is if
divided among all the cattle near the
vat. After the vat is built. 5 cents
a head will pay for arsenic for
enough dippings to rid your county
Of ticks.
Moreover. when d beef animal has
been freed from ticks. il can
be sold in the open pens at the stock-
yards in competition with other free
cattle, it brings from s. to SO more
per head than when offered for i'm
mediate slaughter only from a quar-
artine pen. L costs less to ship tick
free cattle than tiely cattle be
cause ticty cattle have to b.
shipped under quarantine restri,-
home and cause it to bring less profit
Al the packing house
The L. S Department # 4erieul-
ture will be glad to work with yor
your neighnors, your county, arG
vour State 70 FREE Your di:trict +
ticks aad help you establish rrofit-
able stock-raising and dairyine in
lustry. 1t will supply free informa- |
ion. and when your district shows |
hat it means business and wants 70
AXE the profits that await it the De
3arment will be glad to send lis ex-
,ert field men TO supervise the build
ne Of watts, to prepare the arsenical
paths. and to help YOU dip Your cat
le. Full information can DO no |
larm. Write to-day to the Secretary /
# Agriculture for data as to whac
he tick is costing you. and how little
money and time it will take to make t
;our county free area.