SECTION LXIII. THE CATTLE TICK 



IN somewhat the same way that the mosquito spreads 

 malaria among mankind, the cattle tick spreads a very 

 fatal disease among cattle. This is the tick fever, which 

 causes more deaths and other losses among Southern cattle 

 than all other diseases combined. It has been estimated 

 that in this and in other ways the cattle tick causes a loss 

 every year of more than $40,000,000 to the South. The 

 government maintains a quarantine line to prevent the 

 spread of ticks and tick fever. 



The cause of tick fever is a tiny parasite, or harmful 

 living thing, that can be seen only by the use of a good 

 miscroscope. It destroys the red blood-cells of the dis- 

 eased animals. 



In the blood that the tick sucks from Southern or other 

 cattle that have once had the disease are the parasites. 

 The mother tick conveys these to her eggs, and these pass 

 them on to the young ticks. When these latter insert 

 their mouth-parts into a cow that has not had tick fever, 

 the parasites pass from the tick into the animal, and cause 

 it to sicken and often to die. Hence cattle brought south 

 from north of the quarantine line often die with this disease, 

 which is carried to them by ticks. Experiments have re- 

 cently shown that the cattle tick can be entirely destroyed 

 over large areas of country. 



The life of a tick. To learn to fight any pest, first 



230 



