10 
The first suggestion of splashboards was not as a means of con- 
trolling the horn fly but to keep the fluid from wasting over the sides 
of the vat and to protect the men who were working near the vat. 
When a large animal strikes the fluid the splash will fly as high as 
6 feet, and the spray will scatter widely. 
The accompanying detailed sketches illustrate two vats equipped 
with splashboards which have been used very successfully for a num- 
ber of years in Texas. The first sketch (fig. 4) is a cross section of the 
vat constructed by Mr. J. J. Welder, Victoria County, Tex. A ground 
plan of the entrance is illustrated in figure 5. Mr. Welder’s vat is a 
rather large one, having a surface level of the dip 5 feet wide but with 
an entrance chute to the 
vat of only 3 feet and 
9 inches. The splash- 
boards are 2 feet wide 
and 20 feet long, ex- 
tending from the termi- 
; nation of the entrance 
CHUTE 929 WIDE | chute. In the case of 
this dipping vat the ani- 
mal is confined to the 
middle of the vat and 
entirely away from the 
splashboards by the nar- 
row entrance chute. 
Another similar vat 
is illustrated in figure 
6. This vat was con- 
structed by Mr. A. P. 
Borden on the Pierce 
Ranch, WhartonCounty, 
Tex. The splashboards 
Fig. 4.—Cross section of dipping vat used by Mr. J.J.Welder. gre 1 foot wide and ex- 
oD tend the full length of 
the vat, and can be used, if necessary, as a walk in assisting cattle in 
trouble. The ends of the splashboards next to the entrance are 
rounded off in the case of this vat; but the entrance slides, as illus- 
trated in the ground plan of the Welder vat (fig. 5), and the height of 
the splashboards above the dip level, have in the actual treating of 
hundreds of cattle prevented any difficulty of catching or colliding 
of the animals with the splashboards, and were used on a number of 
vats in Texas most successfully during the years 1907 to 1909. 
[Cir. 115] 
SPLASH SOAFOS 
2’ WIDE 
CPPOSS SEC7TIO/VV 
