44 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



ties. These ticks have been more or less prevalent in Southwest 

 Missouri for years. They were first noticed in Ripley county in 

 1906, and were apparently carried there and spread over the 

 county by western horses. The infection in Oregon county seems 

 to have been spread there by ticky cattle ranging over the line 

 from Sharp county, Arkansas. 



The general plan adopted by this department for preventing 

 the spread of the fever ticks and eradicating them from the in- 

 fected areas, was (1) to place all infested cattle and pastures in 

 quarantine, (2) to require all cattle ranging on infested ground to 

 be greased every four weeks, and (3) to forbid the use of infested 

 pastures by any cattle or horses except they were greased every 

 four weeks. An especial effort was made to have every cow in 

 the State, ranging on any infested ground, greased after cold 

 weather to prevent the possibility of her carrying any ticks through 

 the winter on her body. To complete the eradication of the fever 

 ticks in the State will require the burning over of all infested 

 ground before warm weather, toward which a campaign of educa- 

 tion has been continually carried on by all inspectors engaged in 

 the work. A healthy sentiment has been developed in favor of 

 burning the infested ranges and pastures, and the only remaining 

 element of doubt about the results is whether or not the weather 

 will be dry enough for thorough burning. The amount of infec- 

 tion which will remain in the State during the coming year, de- 

 pends wholly upon the thoroughness with which the infested pas- 

 tures and ranges are burned over. If, at any time, before warm 

 weather, there is an opportunity to do this burning effectively the 

 work will be promptly attended to. 



Dr. R. L. Allen was employed to take charge of the tick eradi- 

 cation work in Southwest Missouri for the month of July and Au- 

 gust. Mr. W. E. Dabb, a cattleman of Anderson, Missouri, was 

 employed to assist him and to attend to whatever work was left to 

 do, after Dr. Allen's time expired. With the assistance of Mr. J. 

 E. Taylor of Oregon county, I attended to this work in Ripley 

 county in person. 



During the season, 78 lots of cattle were quarantined in Rip- 

 ley^ county, 8 in Oregon, 9 in Jasper, 40 in Newton, 27 in McDonald 

 and 1 in Barry. I wish to explain that hunting up and finding all 

 the lots of tick infested cattle is a very tedious matter. These lots, 

 usually small, are found scattered through different neighborhoods 

 and in many cases in almost inaccessible ranges. Some of the 

 herds in Ripley county, among which ticks were found, were so 



