THE AGEICULTUEAL NEWS. 



Various Methods 



OF 



CATTLE TICK 



Tick Destruction 



In the compilation of these notes, reference has been maJe to many sources of information^ but particularly to an 



article which appeared in the "Bulletin of the Jamaica Department of Agriculture " Vol. 1, Number 3, from 



which much of the following matter is quoted, almost textually. 



HAND PICKING. This is a primitive method and absolutely ineffective, on a large property, for keeping douTi ticks. Only the engorged females 

 offer [liemselves as objects for removal by the hand of the operator. A certain proportion of engorged females drop off in the pastures, or the road- 

 side, or in the cattle pen. A certain number fail to be destroyed by the fingers or heel of the picker, and the result is that a great many more ticks 

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



TARRING. This was the remedy recommended by Profe5sor Williams as a result of his mission to Jamaica in 1896. One part of Tar to three parts 

 of boiled linseed oil was recommended. In many instances the result of its too thorough application was that the animals so treated became 

 asphyxidled 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 paint pot daubs a smear of the tick-dressing only 

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

 on the suiface of every animal must be reached by the tick destroying agent. While a few score of engorged ticks are hastily brushed over on a 

 cow's flank or thighs, there may be hundreds of larval ticks all along the spinal region, on the poll, and in fact on all parts of the body, undergoing 

 development. Unless all these ticks are killed, and not merely 60 or 70 per cent., the complete eradication of the ticks is out of the question. 

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



BRUSHING. Brushing with a tick-destroying wash represents a fairly efficient means of treating tick-infested cattle, but is attended with some 

 risk. 1 he bulk of the remedies used for " brushing " are coal-tar emulsions of the type of Jeyes' Fluid. None of these preparations will kill licks 

 unless used at a strengfh 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. 

 It is perfectly certain ih;it brushing is not a good method, and will not solve the tick problem so as completely to abolish ticks on a property, 

 because it 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 

 satisfied '.viih then results from brushing, because they have not really made accurate observations of the tick mortality resulting from their operations. 



STARVATION IVSEI *-20D. This is a sure and inexpensive method, but can only be applied by the owner of a large herd who has a 

 permanent pasture and two or three other fenced fields which have not been pastured by cattle for a year or so. It consists in keeping the cattle 

 off the infesitd pasture for a period of twelve months or more, until the young licks are starved out. The cattle are taken from the tick-infested pasture 

 and placed on tick-fiee land ; before young ticks hatch from the eggs laid in this first tick-free field by the female ticks on the cattle when moved 

 from the lick-infcstcd pasture, the cattle are moved a second time on to another lick-free field. 



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

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

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

 burning, even when carried out at the proper time, will not completely eradicate ticks, it will only reduce their numbers, and that only temporarily. 



HAND SPRAYING, Sprajmg by means of one or other of the many types of hand-pumps or syringes is. If very carefully and thoroughly done. 

 a very cil ciive melhod of treating tick-infested cattle : but it is slow, unpleasant work, and. moreover, very wasteful of the wash. The efliciency of 

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

 never be entrusted to na!ives or negroes without effective supervision. 



MACHINE SPRAYING. The principle of machine spraying is the passing of the animals through a short tunnel, lined with piping, through holes 

 or ]ets in which, a tick-destroying fluid is sprayed at them from the floor and from all possible angles by means of a pump. There can be no doubt 

 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 all 

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

 the eai^, or under iiie tail, or in the " bruth " of the tail may not be reached. But where expense, or some other obstacle, precludes the employ- 

 ment of a dip[.ing bath, a spraying machine is by a long way the most efficient substitute. The machine manufactured by William Cooper 6c Nephews 

 is the latest and cheapest form of Spraying Machine. 



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

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

 through the tank, every single tick is brought into contact with the tick-destroying fluid, even if deep down In the 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 first-cost of a tank is comparatively high, but Its low cost of operation, its simplicity, its efficiency, and Its permanency, more than 

 compenralc for the exir.i Iniii il expenditure. The great advantage of dipping over spraying or hand-dressing lies in the fact that the throroughness of 

 the trcilment under all condi.iuns is practically assured, as it is not dependent, to any degree, on the care exercised by those in chargeof the work ; 

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

 some o'her melhod, you kill 75 of the licks, great and small, on your animals, you are only " suppressing " the ticks, and are still far from solving 

 the problem of complete eradication. A method that will kill 100/- of the ticks is worth to a Cattle owner ten times as much as a method that 

 will kill only 9ti . The truth ol this will be apparent after two years of faithful and systematic operations. With dipping, the efficient treatment 

 of lick-infestcd Cattle becomes a very simple matter, and complete lick eradication becomes a possibility. 



COPPERAS CATTLE TICK DIP 

 Has received the official approval of tfie following Countrieu : 



Union of ^outh Africa, Northern Rhodesia, Brazil, linsutoland, 



Nyasaland, Swaziland, Southern Rhodesia, Madagascar, 



British Tast Africa. German East Africa. Portuguese I.ast Africa. 



Portuguese West Africa, Egypt, Argentine Republic, Queensland, 



United Stales of America. Northern Territory of Australia. 



WEST INDIAN AGENTS; 



5T. KITTS : 5. L. Horsford & Co. ANTIGUA : Bennett, Bryson & COb 



JAMAICA: D. Henderson & Co., kinsrston. 



(iRKNADA: Thomson, Hankey & Co. 



BARBADO.'^: Barbados Co-operative Cotton Co., Ltd. 



TRINIDAD: T. Qeddes Grant, Port of 5paln. 



BRITISH GLIAINA: .Sandbacli, Parker A Co. 



ST. VINCKNT: Corea & Co.. KinKStown. NHVI5: 5. D. Malone. 



DANISH WEST INDIES: Carl V. La Beet. St. Thomas. 



MONTSERRAT: \V. Llewellyn Wall. DOMINICA: Hon. H. A. Framptoa 



Manufacturers : WILLIAM COOPER & NEPHEWS, Berkhamsted, England. 



BRANCHES : Toronto, Chicago, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Buenoi Airet, Monte Video, Puota Arenai, East London, Odeua. 



