188 DESTROYING TICKS. 



hand, and with the other clasps the nose so as to prevent any 

 of the fluid from entering the nostrils or mouth ; another 

 holds the lamb by the hind -legs, and they then entirely 

 immerse it in the fluid. It is immediately taken out, placed 

 on the grate, and every part of its wool carefully squeezed. 

 The grated shelf conducts the liquor back into the box. In 

 default of a dipping box, two tubs may be used. After 

 dipping the lamb in one it is set on its feet in the empty one, 

 its wool squeezed out, and the liquor returned to the dipping 

 tub as often as is necessary. 



Mr. Thome informs me that he mixes whale oil with the 

 tobacco water, until the latter is considerably thickened by it ; 

 and he thinks this renders the wash beneficial to the fleece. 

 A solution of arsenic has long been used for the same 

 purpose in Great Britain, and at the present time it is vastly 

 more economical than tobacco. Three pounds of white 

 arsenic, in powder, are dissolved in six gallons of boiling 

 water, and forty gallons of cold water are added. The whole 

 is well stirred with a stick, and the lamb is then immersed pre- 

 cisely in the same way as in the tobacco water. The remaining 

 liquor, containing this deadly poison, should be poured where 

 no animal can get to it ; and the dipping box, after being well 

 rinsed, should be put in a safe place and used for no other 

 purpose. Arsenic is not poisonous to the hands, if they are 

 sound ; and even if the skin should be a little broken, a couple 

 of hours exposure to the above described solution would be 

 attended with no danger. If large surfaces of the hands 

 were denuded of skin, an injurious absorption of the arsenic 

 might take place. The old sheep are frequently dipped at 

 the same time with lambs, in arsenic water, in England. 



If the lambs of a breeding flock are properly dipped, but 

 very few ticks will be found either on the old sheep or lambs 

 at the next shearing. If killed in the same way on the 

 succeeding years' lambs, they will generally be wholly 

 exterminated from the flock; and if no ticky sheep are 

 subsequently introduced into it, and it is kept in good order, 

 two or three or more years may elapse before another tick 

 will be found in it. 



When lambs have been suffered to go until winter without 

 dipping, and are covered with ticks, arsenic boiled in water, 

 an ounce to a gallon, is poured on them ; but the Mountain 

 Shepherd's Manual, which recommends this, adds : " In this 

 method, however, several of the ticks escape by crawling to 

 the extremities of the filaments." The common mercurial 



