516 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



At present most tobacco dips are made either with the extract of to- 

 bacco or with nicotine solution, on account of the convenience of mixing 

 these preparations with water. The regulations of the bureau of animal 

 industry call for 0.05 of 1 per cent of nicotine in a tobacco dip. SuflBcient 

 nicotine would therefore be furnished for 100 gallons (about 800 pounds) 

 of dip by 1 pound of a 40 per cent solution of nicotine. The formula for 

 this dip would be: 



Nicotine pound 0.4 



Flowers of sulphur pounds 15 



Water gallons 100 



The sulphur should be made into a thin paste with water in a bucket 

 before it is added to the dip in the tank. It can then be poured in slowly 

 with continual stirring, and will not settle to the bottom, as would other- 

 wise be the case. The nicotine solution or tobacco extract should not be 

 added to the dip until just before it is ready for use, and then the dip 

 should be thoroughly stirred, so as to secure a uniform mixture. The 

 dip should on no account be heated above 110° F. after the nicotine solu- 

 tion is added, as heat is liable to evaporate the nicotine and weaken the 

 dip. It will be an easy matter to calculate 100 gallons of water by divid- 

 ing the 'quantity of nicotine required in the dip by the proportion of nico- 

 tine in the extract. For example, suppose the nicotine solution contains 

 25 per cent of nicotine, we have 0.40-^0.25=1.6. Therefore, in this case it 

 would require 1.6 pounds of nicotine solution for the 100 gallons of dip. 

 Or, if a tobacco extract is used, having, for example, 2.40 per cent of 

 nicotine, the formula would be as follows: 0.404-0.024=16.66, and there- 

 fore 16.66 pounds would be required for 100 gallons of dip. 



The advantages of the tobacco dip are that it is comparatively cheap, 

 since the farmer can grow his own tobacco; that it is effectual and at the 

 same time not injurious to the wool. The disadvantage of the dip are 

 that it sometimes sickens the sheep; that it also occasionally sickens the 

 persons who use it, especially if they are not smokers; it spoils very 

 rapidly; it causes a greater setback or "shrinkage" than lime and sulphur, 

 but less of a setback than carbolic dips. 



ARSENICAL DIPS. 



There are both home-made arsenical dips and secret proprietary 

 arsenical dips. It is well to use special precautions with both because of 

 the danger connected with them. One of the prominent manufacturers of 

 dips, a firm which places on the market both a powder arsenical dip and a 

 liquid nonpoisonous dip, recently summarized the evils of arsenical dips 

 in the following manner: 



The drawbacks to the use of arsenic may be summed up somewhat aa 

 follows: (a) Its danger as a deadly poison, (b) Its drying effect on the 

 wool, (c) Its weakening of the fiber of the wool in one particular part 

 near the skin, where it comes in contact with the tender wool roots at 

 the time of dipping, (d) Its not feeding the wool or stimulating the 

 growth, or increasing the weight of the fleece, as good oleagipous dips do. 

 (e) The danger arising from the sheep pasturing, after coming out of 

 the bath, where the wash may possibly have dripped from the fleece, or 

 where showers of rain, after the dipping, have washed the dip out of the 



