The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-04-08

each district. These inspectors make
reports to the chief of the bureau
of animal industry at Washington,
ID. C. In this manner the bureau is
able to keep account of the work
done.
Since the beginning of the work
the states of Missouri, Tennessee,
Kentucky, California and Virginia
have been completely freed from this
pest. Out of total infected area
of 729,024 square miles, the tick has
been eradicated from 253, 288 square
miles. This by no means, represents
all the work completed along this
line. One of the greatest difficult
ties, at the present time, is the trou-
BILE arising from the use of the free
range territories. Many counties
have voted against tick eradication,
but as the work progresses and. the
advantages of the work become bet
ter known, public opinion in those
sections is rapidly changing. One
county which year ago voted
against tick eradication, this year
carried the project by vote of three
to one.
We must fully understand the life,
habits and conditions under which it
thrives.
The eggs, laid on the ground, where
the female has settled, at once begin
to grow. The larva, after Matching
from the egg, has six legs which are
hard to see with the naked eye. If
these larvae are kept on moist earth
they may live for months, they do
not grow in size, but crawl along
until they reach some fr-'l where
they will crawl upon it and wait for
some COW to come along where they
can fasten themselves into the ten
der skin of the cow.
The young tick, within a week,
molts and the second stake Of the
tick is then started. After this change
is made they have four pairs of legs.
In another week, they have another
change in which they pass from the
pupa into the adult. The tick grows
fast then, and soon sucks a great
quantity of blood
When the female becomes gorged.
she drops off of the COW and orawls
off to some cool shady place where
they lays quiet for a few days in
summer. While she is there, she will
lay rom 1900 to 5000 eggs after lay
| ing the eggs, she is small and dried
up, then she will crawl off to some
place where she soon dies.
AS long as the ticks stays in the
| south, the southern farmers can not
get a good price for his stick. hides
or dairy products. His stock will
die of Texas fever, he cannot intro
duce thoroughbred stock into his
herds, and he cannot sell his cattle or
hides in the northern markets for
| the same price as the western stock
man receives.
For these and many other reasons
! the tick ought to be eradicated.
There are many different methods
| in which we can rid the cattle of the
tick. First, we can dip them; Sec
ond, we can spray them, and third
We can clear the fields and pastures
| of ticks.
Dipping the. cattle is the best meth
cd, because you can run the cows
through a small chute, which is made
of cement. This has been filled with
disinfectaat that will kill the tick
as the cows pass through, but they
! will not drop off for three or four
days after they have been dipped.
"a dipping vat consists essentially
| of two thousand gallon cement tant;
built into the ground and filled with
an arsenical solution, composed OF
white arsenic, eight pounds; washing
sods, twenty-four pounds; pine tar
one gallon, to every five hundred gal
Ions"
! Spraying the cattle is good meth
| L. al
or they may be curried with curry
comb, SO as to get all the seed tick
| off.
Then you can clear your cattle OF
ticks by the pasture rotation method
1t will take longer by this method
but it is just as effective because il
| will eventually starve the tick.
Eradication of Cattle Tick.
BY Kathryn Wehmeier, grade eight
Joseph b. Jockey school:
The eradication of the cattle itch
is a problem of prime Importance tc
the agricultural interests of this sec
ton. The elimination of the tick
would give a tremendous impulse tc
southern agriculture, put southern
| dairying on a more scientific basi;
and give. greater measure OF pros
perity to the south as whole. Iht
benefits therefrom would not be con.
fined to the south, but would benefit
the whole country, consequently til:
is a problem of national importance
As early as 1896, DR.. Pease, o
Lancaster county, Pa, discovered
that cattle coming from South Caro-
lima, though apparently health!
themselves, spread an infectious dis
ease over the territory through which
they passed. In 1868 people founc
that cattle driven from Texas and solC
at Cairo, Ill.,, spread the same dis
ease. 1t, then got the name "Texa
fever" This caused fright among tn,
doctors of New York, for fear thu
meat from these cattle might be poi
son. In 1906, the federal government
established quarantine line extend
ing from Northern Virginia acros
4 to Texas, also across Southern Cali
fornia, which prohibited the shipping
of cattle from this district, excep
under special regulations. In 1907