TEXAS CATTLE FEVER. 1355 



applied to the skin two or three times weekly during the tick season. For 

 this purpose sponges, syringes, brushes, mops, or brooms may be used. 

 This method not only kills the older ticks on the cattle by mechanically 

 plugging up their breathing pores, but also makes the legs so slippery that 

 the seed ticks are unable to get a foothold in order to crawl up on the cat- 

 tle. Where a large number of animals are to be treated, but not sufficient 

 to make it advisable to construct a dipping vat, spraying the infested 

 animals has given very favorable results. The animals should be placed 

 in a chute or a stall, or tied to a tree, and then sprayed with Beaumont oil 

 or a 5 per cent solution of any of the standard coal-tar dips. The solution 

 may be applied by means of a force pump, such as is used by orchardists 

 to spray fruit trees, or by placing the solution in a barrel upon a wagon 

 or on a platform above the animals and allowing the fluid to gravitate 

 through a hose, to the end of which is attached an ordinary sprinkling 

 nozzle. The solution is then allowed to flow over the skin of the animal, 

 especially upon the legs and under portions of the body. If the cattle are 

 on tick-infested pavstures, this treatment — either smearing or spraying — 

 must be continued through the whole season, and if thoroughly done it 

 will leave the fields free from ticks the following year. 



SORGHUM POISONING. 



This disease has been found to be due to the elaboration, within the 

 tissues, of stunted or second-growth sorghum, a glucoside, which later de- 

 velops into prussic, or hydrocyanic acid, and causes death very rapidly. 

 This was satisfactorily determined at the Nebraska Government Station 

 while Dr. Peters was the veterinarian there. 



Virtually, it is a case of prussic-acid poisoning, and death being so sud- 

 den (this being one of the most active poisons known), there is not very 

 nuich to be seen by way of symptoms previous to death. Being aware of 

 the fact that sorghum, in this condition, is the cause, stockowners usually 

 either do not allow their animals to use the sorghum, or turn them on to it 

 for only a short time at first, or allow them to have something else in their 

 stomachs before turning them on to the sorghum. The remedy is, therefore, 

 a question of prevention rather than cure, as there is little that can be done 

 to counteract the effect of the poison after it has been absorl^ed int^) the 

 system. So that, in a general way, the cause may be said to be this ])()is()n 

 in the stunted, or second-growth sorghum. 



Symptoms : Sudden death. 



Treatment: Prevention, along the lines here suggested. 



There is a similar poison in other forage i)lants, and on certain charac- 

 ters of soils, than sorghum. 



