230 JOURNAL OP THE TRINIDAD 



Anyone then who values his beasts will put a stop to the 

 barbaric remedies of scraping his cattle with a knife, cutting the 

 ticks with scissors or injuring them in such a way as to cause 

 them to penetrate deeper into the animal's skin. 



In almost all countries there are certain local applications 

 to the skin of animals intended to free them from ticks, and 

 other parasites. In India a vegetable substance called Nim oil 

 is said to very efficacious. In Barbados various plants are used 

 to rub the cattle and horses to produce a sleek skin and to keep 

 off vermin. Among others the Bully-ache bush (Jatropha 

 gossy pi folia), black saye and rock sage (Lantana species; were 

 mentioned to me as especially useful. The oil-glands in the 

 former of these plants at once point out the reason of its 

 application, while the -strong scent of the latter may be 

 objectionable to flies and ticks. 



The members of the tick order can be readily placed hors 

 da combat by stopping up their breathing holes, and a very 

 harmless series of methods is thus opened up before us. 



Any oily substance will be of value, and a well-known 

 remedy used locally in Antigua and in various other parts of the 

 world is old axle yre ise rubbed over the parts attacked. But 

 independently of this suffocating effect of oily matters there 

 appears, as already pointed out, to be an objection on the part 

 of the tick to any greasy or fat skin, so it is difficult to decide 

 how exactly the application re-acts upon the parasite. 



But, as will be evident, the remedies so far suggested have 

 the grave drawback that the cattle must be held or thrown down 

 daring treatment. The throwing-down of cattle, excepting for 

 special operations, cannot lie too strongly condemned. Tl.e 

 ordinary estate labourers are not particularly light-handed, and 

 the brutality sometimes inflicted upon the cattle for the purpose 

 of efficiently smearing them with some verinin-destroyirg 

 compound is very probably more harmful than the pests themselves. 

 It has been said that the days are fast passing away when it is 

 customary to tie up a cow " fore and aft "and throw it heavily to 

 the ground. A little consideration will show that there is no 

 necessity for any such proceeding. 



To throw down and drench a number of cattle entails besides 

 a great deal of labour, so much so that this method cannot be 

 employed frequently enough to be economically efficient. 



We must again appeal to the methods adopted in the 

 cleansing of plants from infestations. There is this difference 

 between the vegetable and animal kingdom that, while the ani- 

 mals have to be caught, the plants to be treated are stationary. 

 They need not be brought into compulsory quiet, but can easily 

 bii treated at any moment. But the very great surface of foliage 

 to be treated has long ago proved that careful washing of ti 



