THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Pflgg Seventeen 



New "Vacuum Cleaner" 



Removes Cattle Pest 



A "VACUUM Cl.liANER" to ex- 

 tract ox warbles from the cow's 

 back has been devised by Doctors Imes, 

 Boyd, and other associates of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, who 

 are stationed at Galesburg, Illinois, to 

 study the problem of ox-warblc in- 

 festation of cattle. ■• 



The "vacuum cleaner" has been 

 mounted on an automobile trailer with 

 four to six lines of suction hose and 

 nozzles. 



When in operation, a nozzle is placed 

 over an ox-warble grub on the animal's 

 back and the grub is drawn out through 

 the opening in the skin. 



The machine will remove all ox-war- 

 blcs, but because of the tenacity of the 

 older grubs two or three attempts are 

 frequently necessary to dislodge them. 

 Doctor Imes and his coworkers hope to 

 perfect the nozzles sufficient to get a 

 grub with every suction. 



It is hoped that this machine will b; 

 practical for county-wide campaigns 

 against the ox-warble in regions where 

 it is easy to corral all cattle in large 

 herds and send them through chutes to 

 be "degrubbed." 



Heretofore the most satisfactory 

 method of removing the grubs was to 

 extract them through the openings in 

 the animal's back one at a time with 

 forceps, preferably of the alligator type. 

 This is a slow and expensive method. 

 Experimenters in Europe found that 

 about all of the grubs could be de- 

 stroyed by inserting a small medicated 

 stick in the grub opening. 



The department's ox-warble studies 

 revealed that young cattle arc more 

 heavily infested by this parasite than 

 arc older animals, and also that females 

 are more often parasitized than bulls. 

 The heifer is most attractive to this 

 pest, while the old bull is the least at- 

 tractive subject. ^Vv/ 



• ■ •■; Argentine Corn 



The price of corn in Argentina, plus 

 the shipping cost and the United States 

 tariff is five cents less than the price 

 of corn at Chicago. If the price dif- 

 ferential continues an increase in im- 

 ports of corn may be expected, accord- 

 ing to the Department of Commerce. 



Corn in Argentina is now worth 

 about 52 cents, while the price at Chi- 

 cago, September 16, was about 92 cents 

 a bushel. There have been small im- 

 ports of corn from Argentina already, 

 but they have not been in large quan- 

 tities. The lower priced Argentina 

 grain is supplying various markets now. 



Capper Award 



The 1930 Capper Award for Dis- 

 tinguished Service to American Agri- 

 culture, which consists of a gold medal 

 and $J,000 in cash will be conferred 

 on Dr. S. M. Babcock of the University 

 of Wisconsin for his invention of the 

 Babcock Milk Tester. The prize is an 

 annual one offered by Senator Capper 

 of Kansas. 



F. B. Nichols, secretary of the Com- 

 mittee of Awards, in the Capper build- 

 ing, Topeka, Kansas, is now receiving 

 suggestions for the 1931 award. Living 

 Americans who have made a contribu- 

 tion of national importance to agricul- 

 ture are eligible. 



Old Nick, Aged Horse, 



Retired on Pension 



Increase Farm Income 



Pay more attention to increasing the 

 farm income rather than to decreasing 

 expenses, advised M. L. Mosher, director 

 of the Farm Bureau farm management 

 service in Henry, Stark, Peoria and 

 Knox counties in addressing farmers 

 during the first annual tour and picnic 

 of the co-operators in that territory. 



Mr. Mosher quoted Henry Ford in a 

 recent magazine article in which he 

 stated that systems of management 

 were essential for profitable business, 

 but what is needed more at present is 

 good managers to carry out these sys- 

 tems. 



Africans Grow Com 



While traveling through South and 

 East Africa last year Dr. A. S. Hitch- 

 cock, botanist of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, was impressed 

 with the vast fields of corn grown in 

 Africa. 



This Indian corn, called "mealies" by 

 the Africans, was introduced from the 

 United States and is now grown on a 

 large scale by white planters. Doctor 

 Hitchcock said he felt as if he were 

 traveling through the cornbclt while in 

 South Africa. 



Can't Burn Cotton 



The burning of cotton or other per- 

 sonal property in Arkansas for the pur- 

 pose of improving the market price of 

 a cofnmodity is a violation of the law, 

 and persons who engage in such prac- 

 tices will be vigorously prosecuted, ac- 

 cording to a statement issued by the 

 Assistant State Fire Marshall. 



A citizen of Beebe, White county, 

 Arkansas, burned a bale of cotton on 

 Main street in that town on September 

 20 in an effort to stimulate others to- 

 ward doing likewise. 



Uncle Sam dcnrs not provide a "re- 

 tirement fund" for his four-footed em- 

 ployees, as a rule, but h; has made an 

 exception in the case of Old Nick, 34- 

 year-old horse, recently retired on a 

 pension of two measures of bran, oats 

 and alfalfa meal daily. 



Nick went to work for tin- United 

 States Department of Agriculture in 

 1899, when a gelding four years of age, 

 and has been in Government harness 

 ever since. For more than 30 years 

 he has plodded faithfully for "his 

 uncle." Now at the stage of life com- 

 parable to about 90 years of age for 

 man, with faltering gait and teeth 

 worn but otherwise well preserved, he 

 is being given a rest. 



First he went to work at the Federal 

 quarantine station, Athenia, N. J. Since 

 1906 he has worked at the Government 

 Experiment Station at Bethesda, Md., 

 where, until 1915, he pulled a w^gon 

 daily from the station to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture headquarters in 

 Washington and back, a round trip of 

 about 20 miles. 



Born in the days when the horse was 

 the master of the inland transportation 

 problem, Nick has lived to sec his kind 

 gradually disappear from the highways. 

 Although he shied at the first "gas bug- 

 gies" and later learned to pass hundreds 

 of them on the road without notice, he, 

 too, finally fell victim to the relentless 

 competition. Now a motor truek does 

 his job while he grazes leisurely in his 

 pasture. 



Another Irrigation Project ■ 

 Considered , 



With abundant water near the exten- 

 sive desert lands of the Columbia River 

 Basin, the Bureau of Reclamation has 

 begun work to determine the most 

 feasible way of getting the water on to 

 the land, it was stated recently by the 

 Department of the Interior. 



H. W. Bashorc of the Bure.iu of 

 Reclamation, regarded as being especial- 

 ly skillful as a location engineer, Ijas 

 been assigned to a study of a means for 

 reclaiming a sagebrush plain in the State 

 of Washington as big as the nation's 

 two smallest states combined and con- 

 verting it into an irrigated garden spot. 



The Columbia, Snake and the Spo- 

 kane rivers flow past these parched des- 

 ert lands, but they have cut deep into 

 the silt and their beds are now hundreds 

 of feet lower than the level of the 

 plain. ,'.'.. 



All setbacks are merely temporary to 

 the man who is going somewhere. 



