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

die from exposure, as that term is
generally understood; but that the
cause of death is the COW tick and
lack of care.
Under our present conditions, Flor
ida cattle have no market except in
other quarantined areas OF the south,
and in the foreign infested countries
to the south of us.
AS long as this condition exists,
Florida cattle, no matter how high
their bredieng or quality, must be
sold under quarantine or as quaran-
tined animals This means they are
always sold for less than they would
bring if sold as coming from tick
free state.
Cattle, irrespective of breeding or
condition, shipped TO Chicago from
Florida, must be shipped for in1med-
late slaughter, and are held, pending
slaughter, in special pens, by the ma
tional quarantine Officers. The cars
they are shipped in must be disin-
fected of the ticks that drop off, in
transit.
Even the hides of the Florida cattle
are worth less per pound because a
hide that is full of tick bites does
not make good leather. Therefore,
it is exacting heavy toll from this
branch of our agriculture, by caus-
ing a large increase of the death
rate, by causing a sickness which
brings about shrinkage in size; by
keeping people out of the cattle bus
mess, which could be made paying
one; by loss of the land fertilizing
value of the animals that could be
raised; by loss in prices of meat pro-
ducts, in the price of hides, and many
depressing influences upon farm life
There are several methods that are
very effective in exterminating cattle
| tick, such as, picking the ticks off by
! hand, spraying and dipping, but the
last mentioned method is best, and is
the method that the federal govern
ment recommends most highly, be-
cause it admits of the thoroughness
that is impossible by any other meth
cd. Vat tanks and other necessary
arrangements for handling the cattle
| cost from thirty-five to one hundred
dollars, according to the cost of labor
and materials. The infested animals
are made to jump into the vat one
at time and as the vat is too mar
row for them to turn around, they
are forced to swim out at the other
end where their feet strike an in,
cline and they walk out into a drip
ping pen to dry off. This is repeat
| ed every two weeks, fourteen times
After each dipping the animals arr
again placed in pastures, where they
i of course, become reinfested. As tbs
life of the seed tick is limited tx
| four months, unless it gets on COW
horse or mule, it is readily seen tina,
those ticks which have failed in this
starve to death; while those that dix
get on cattle so reated, are ever aftel
free of COW ticks, unless ticky cattle
are introduced. In this case the wholC
process would have to be repeated.
/ Eradication OF Cattle Tick.
4 BY Mabel Atkinson. grade seven
/ Myrtle Grove school:
i eradicate the tick" is the c.!
that resounds throughs the corridol
of our fair south land. When tn
/ farmer realizes what this cry mean
to the cattle and dairy interest o
/ Florida, to the scientific and profit
4 able agricultural interest of this sec
ton, and to the prosperity of tn
south as a whole, he would neve
cease in his efforts to rid this fai
laid of that awful pest, the cattl
| tick.
i The territory infested by the ticl
/ includes all or portions of all tn
southern states of our country. TIL
/ work is now divided into districts o
1 one or two states, and is under tn