FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 203 



to the healthy nutrition of the animal body. This is well 

 illustrated by the fact that when cattle which are grazing on the 

 coast veldt and literally covered with ticks are removed up to the 

 sweet grass veldt and on good Karoo, the ticks drop off in a few 

 days, often principally from the change in their nourishment." 



The improvement of pastures and the assurance to the cattle 

 of abundance of grass of the best quality will undoubtedly aim 

 a great blow at their infestation by ticks. 



Dr. Marx, who has made a special study of the ticks of the 

 world, asserts that these creatures can live for their entire cycle 

 of existence upon vegetable food, and that even after having been 

 gorged with blood, they will return to vegetable food. It has 

 been already pointed out that our ticks can live for a considerable 

 time upon dried up and decaying vegetable matter, and it is 

 probable that the young of the gold tick spend the winter months 

 upon the dried up grasses of ill kept pastures. 



The following details are given of a sucessful attempt to 

 stamp out ticks and the disease of sheep (louping-ill) already 

 referred to, in Scotland ; and, although the methods may be re- 

 garded as expensive and inapplicable to our conditions, they are 

 worthy of our consideration. 



" Mr. Nicholl stated that he entered the farm of New- 

 borough twelve years ago, and that the " louping-ill " was then very 

 bad. Between Whitsunday term (May 26th) and August he lost 

 10 per cent of his lambs — 32 out of sixteen score — besides several 

 ewes. He thought the farm was not worth having. The parks 

 were all in rough grass. Next j^ear he bought some cattle, and 

 far more the following year j ate, cut down, and even burnt the 

 old grasses ; drained and limed the parks, using six tons of lime 

 per acre to the light and eight to the heavy land. He con- 

 tinued, to eat, cut and burn down the grasses as bare as he could, 

 and both the louping-ill and the ticks became scarcer and scarcer 



In six years both louping-ill 



and ticks had almost entirely disappeared — an odd one now and 



then — and he has scarcely had any since During 



our visit we found the grasses were more luxuriant and of much 

 better quality than on any neighbouring land. When he first 

 entered the farm the land kepi 23 score of sheep ; it now keeps 

 30 score, besides the extra cattle." 



The many dangers to which our cattle are exposed by the 

 unrestricted presence of skin parasites have lead the writer to 

 approach the question of remedies from all points of view. It is 

 easy enough to give a few well-known recipes for cleaning infested 

 cattle. These are very important adjuncts in fighting the ticks, 

 and it is proposed to give the formulae which appear to receive 

 the best support from authorities in veterinary science in the 

 next article. 



