DISEASES OF CATTLE 333 



ary pasture.* In the first feed lot the greater number of ticks drop 

 off and lay eggs. After an interval of twenty days and before these 

 eggs have had time to hatch, the cattle are moved to the second in- 

 closure, where they are kept another twenty days, when they will in 

 many instances be free of ticks and can be turned into the forage 

 field. However, in case ticks are still present, the cattle should be 

 placed in a third paddock for fifteen days longer. All the ticks that 

 were on the animals when placed in the feed lots will have dropped 

 off now, and, as the cattle leave each feed lot before they can become 

 reinfested by the seed ticks which hatch from the eggs of the ticks 

 that fall off, they will be clean and safe. These tick-free cattle are 

 then pastured in the sorghum, corn, or millet field containing the 

 feed lots and the latter are plowed immediately after the cattle are 

 taken out, their edges are sprayed with Beaumont oil, petroleum, or 

 other disinfectant substances, and the soil is cultivated. The cattle 

 are kept in the forage field until November 15, or even later, when 

 all the ticks on the regular pasture will have died of starvation from 

 the exclusion of cattle since June 1, and the tick-free animals can 

 then be replaced on this tick-free pasture. In adopting this method 

 it is essential that the feed lots be inclosed by a fence which is board- 

 tight along the ground, and that this fence oe watched carefully and 

 disinfected occasionally to prevent the ticks from getting into the 

 forage field ; a single furrow could be thrown up on both sides of the 

 fence for the same purpose. These feed lots should be situated along 

 the edge of the field in order that the cattle in changing from one 

 lot to the other may pass, as directly as possible, through a portion 

 of an adjoining cultivated or tick-free field, so that if the ticks fall 

 off during this drive they will not infest the forage field and later 

 the cattle when pastured therein. The cattle should be fed on the 

 annual crops while in these lots, but never upon crops obtained from 

 infested pastures, as such food may contain seed ticks. Water may 

 be supplied by piping from a well, spring, or creek, by carting it to 

 the feed lots in barrels, or by placing the fence so as to include a 

 spring or portion of a creek, provided the latter does not flow through 

 an infected pasture a short distance above. 



By Pasture Rotation. A very satisfactory method for freeing 

 cattle as well as pastures of the cattle tick is by pasture rotation, 

 which combines the suggestions of Curtice, Butler, and Morgan. It 

 is based upon the knowledge that by severing the relations of the 

 fever ticks and the animals upon which they develop these ticks will 

 perish. To adopt this plan first divide the infected pasture into two 

 parts, which is best accomplished by a double line of fence with a 

 10-foot space between the lines to prevent ticks crossing from one 

 pasture to another. Further, in order to observe all possible precau- 

 tions, this fence should have either a furrow thrown up against it 

 or a board or rail placed tightly along the bottom to help keep the 

 ticks within. All animals that carry the cattle tick are excluded from 



*From our experience the two lots recommended by Morgan would not be 

 sufficient under all conditions. 



