THE AGRICULTUBAL NEWS. 



Various Methods 



OF 



Tick ^Destruction 



In the co-npilaiion of these notes. Tefcrcnc^ has been made to many tourcet of information^ but particularly to an — -^-^•-^ 



article which appeared in the " Bull-J-lm ^f the Jamaica Department of Agriculture ** Vol. I, Number 3, from cattle Tic- 



which much of tfm following matter it Qt*oted, almost textualty. •■<», .a. A 



KAND PICKING. This is a primilive method an^ absolutely ineffective, on a large property, for keepyig down ticks. Only the engorged females 

 cficr ihe.'nselvcs as objects (or removal by the hand of the operator. A cerialn proportion of engorged letnales drop off in the pastures, or the road- 

 iide. or in the cattle pen. A certain number foil to be destroyed by the fingers or heel of the pickCT*. and the result is thai a great many more tick* 

 furvive than are picked off the bodies of the calde. This method is largely responsible for the tick pest retaining its most virulent form 



TARRING. This was the remedy recimmended by Professor Williams as a result of his mission to Jamaica in 1896. One part of Tar to ihrcc pdrts 

 C't boiled linseed Oil was recommended. In many instances the result of Us too thorough application was that llic animals so treated became 

 t:sphyxia!(.d through a blocking of the pores of the skin. This tar remedy, however, or variations of it containing sour orange juice, carbolic acid, 

 kerosene oil and other fearsome remedies, are still widely used in Jamaica. A boy with the painl.pot daubs a smear of the lick-dic?sing only 

 i-Ti such portions of an infected animal as appear to him to be in pressing need of treatment; but to cope properly wiih the tick pest, every spot 

 . ;hr fU'frtCc of e\'cry animal must be reached by the tick destroying agent. While a few score of engorged ticks are hastily brushed over on a 

 tow's ft-ink cr liiifhs, ihere may be hundreds of larval licks all along the spinal region, on the poll, and in fact on all parts of the body, undergoing 

 dtv'Iopmcn!, Unless all these ticks are killed, and not merely 60 or 70 per cent., the complete eradication of the licks is out of the question. 

 So long as Callle breeders keep to the tar brush, so long will the tick plague wax fierce and flourish. 



BRUSHING. Brushing wi:h a tick-destroying wash represents a fairly efficient means of treating tick-infested cattle, but is attended wi'.h >ome 

 rl^k. 7 he bu!k of the remedies used for " brushing " are coal-tar emulsions of the type of Jeyes* Fluid. 'None of these preparations will kill ticks 

 unless use 1 at a strength that is very liable to strip the skin of the cows under treatment ; in no case do they give a high efficiency of tick-destruction. 

 1: l^ per(c:tl/ certai.T that brushing jis not a good method, and will not solve the tick problem so as completely to .ibolish ticks on a properly, 

 because ii is not capable of complete or perfect results, nor is it free from risk of injury to the animals treated. Many pen-keepers are entirely 

 fa:i.-ficd V. i h their results from brushing, because they have not really made accurate observations of the lick mortality rc?ulling from their operatjons. 



STARVATION METHOD. This is a sure and inexpensive method, but can only be applied by the owner of a large herd who has a 

 pt-rrr.ar.tn" pasture and two or three .other fenced fields \\hich have not been pastured by calde for a year or so. It consists in keeping the cattle 

 i'}. iIic i:.ie>:cd pasture for a period of twelve months or more, until the young ticks are starved out. The cattle are taken from the tick-infested pasture 

 tr.d placed on tick-free land ; before young licks hatch from the eggs laid in this first tick-free field by the female licks on the cattle when moved 

 j.om the :i.k-i..fc*:tu pasture, the cattle are moved a second time on to another lick-free field. 



GRASS DURNING, If burning is. done at the right time, it cannot fail to kill immense numbers of the young *' seed " ticks ; but it is the common 

 txf tner.cc that " burnt" pastures very quickly again become heavily tick-infested. This is due to the fact that the tick-eggs on the ground afe not des- 

 tro ed, and no doubt many female ticks escape the effects of the fire by hiding in cracks and crevices, or under stones, or logs of wood, etc. Grass- 

 turring, e\en when carried out at the proper time, will not completely eradicate ticks, it will only reduce their numbers, and that only temporarily. 



HAND SPRAYING. Spraying by means of one or other of the many types of hand-pumps or syringes is, if very carefully and ihorouphly done, 

 ;; very effective method of treating ti^k-infcsted cattle : but it is slow, unpleasant work, and, moreover, very wasteful of the wash. The efficiency of 

 hand spraying may be said to be in effect proportion to the care and. thoroughness with which the operation is conducted; for this reason, it should 

 ne\er be entrusted to natives or negroes without effective supervision. f 



MACHINE SPRAYING- The principle of machine spraying is the passing of the animals through a short tunnel, lined with piping, through Koh-s 

 or jets in which, a tick-destroying fluid is sprayed at them from ihe floor and from all possible angles by means of n pump. I here can be nodou't! 

 that, next to dipping, machine spraying is by far the best method of treating tick-infested stock ; but it is not by this means absolutely certain that alt 

 ticks will be destroyed, as, however ingenious the arrangement by which the wash is sprayed from "all points of the compass," ticks deep down n 

 tbc ears, or under ihc tail, or in the ' Brush " tjf the tail may not be reached. But where expense, or some other obstacle, precludes the emplov- 

 menl of a dipping bath, a spraying machine is by a long way ihe most efficient substitute. The machine raanufaclured by William Cooper & Nephews 

 is the latest and cheapest form of Spraying .Machine. € 



DIPPING. The only really completely effective method of treating ticky cattle, horses. &c., is to pass them through a swim dipping bath ; the process is 

 absolutely automatic ; it is quick ; it js economical ; it is absolutely efficient, as. at the first plunge at the entrance, or during the process of swimming 

 througli the lank, every single tick is brought into contact with the tick-destroying fluid, even if deep down in tbe ears, or under the eyes, or beneath 

 the root of the tail. Dipping is very economical of wash, as, with a proper draining floor or pen, every drop of surplus wash flows back into the tank 

 and is used again. The firsl-cost cI a tank is comparatively high, but its low cost of operation, its simplicily, its efficiency, and its permanency, more than 

 compensate for the extra initial expenditure. The great advantage of dipping over spraying or hand-dressing lies in the fact that the throroughness of 

 tbe treatment under all conditions is practically assured, as it is not dependent, to any degree, on the care exercised by those in chartjcof the work ; 

 - the cattle.dip themselves. No other method can approach dipping in efficiency, ana in this connection it should be remembered that, even if. by 

 tome other method, you kill 75^o of the licks, great and small, on your animals, you are only " suppressing " the ticks, and are still far from solvuig 

 the problem of complete eradication. A method thar will kill 100% of the ticks is worth to a Callle owner ten times as much as a method that 

 will kill only 90^. The truth of this will be apparent after two years of faithful and systematic operations. With dipping, the cfiideni treatireiit 

 of tick-infested C&ltie becomes a verv simnlp Tn:\i\»r ^nA rnxar^M Uf'\t * ra^i/- iu lrt« k*^w>^ » ■» ->— ^^l .l*-. 



COOPER'S CATTLE TICK DIP. WEST INDIAN AGENTS. 



ST. KIITS: S. L. ll..rsfoiil iV Co. 

 Has received the iiffinixl aj'pni-al of ihe Jolhwbi}:, Oniiitrics: ,\NTli:i.\; Bi'iiiu'ii, Hiyson .V Co. 



'* .lAMAlCA. 1). HonilersiMi .t Co.. Kii)gst..ii. 



Uniw of South Africa, Northern Rhodesia, Braiil, Basutoland, (JRKN.MiA; Thoi„Mm. llanKrv .v C„. 



I BAllBATXiS: ]l:nlKKU>3 Co-.>|Kriitiv<- Cntton < o., Ltd* 



Nya^la-K), Swaziland. Southern Rhodesia, Madagascar, .,,,^^1^^::!!:^ :i,^'^i^T:^.^<^^.^. 



British East Africa. German East Afnck.- Portuguese East Africa. '^'^^,^:^^^^:Ztt:., kSo^^- ^ "' 



'*' „ „. . , . NKVl'S: S. D. M:.lo„o. 



Portuguese West Africa, Egypt, Argentine Republie, ^jBsensland, AMERICAN NlK<ilN i.SL.\Nl>S;<>.ll. s.liniiigilow,Si.Croir.- 



.' MdNTSKItn.VI': \V Llc«>llyii Wall. 



United States o*' America, Sew South Wales, DDlMlNirA: Hon. 11. A. Kranii.ion. 



ST. 1,1 < 'I. \ Itarnw'l S>ms .V Co., Ca.striOs. 

 Northern lerriiory of Australia. . ;i •Al>i:i,( ii-|'t-.: s.,. ,,t.: |,„liiMri.H.' .i A-il.nU., P„i„t-.a Pitro. 



IWamifafturers-lWILLIAN COOPER & NEPHEWS, Berkhamsted, England. 



^^ BrShE^S C7,*g^ r..^oo *ires, Met. Video.'Punta Arenas, East London, Odesc.^ 



