DISEASES OF CATTLE 335 



the first half of the pasture, which may be termed pasture No. 1, 

 from June 1 until November 10, at which time all the ticks that 

 were there will have perished from want of a host and the field will 

 be ready for receiving tick-free cattle. The ticky cattle, on being re- 

 moved from pasture No. 1 on June 1, are placed in the other half of 

 the original pasture, which may be called pasture No. 2, where they 

 are kept from June 1 to September 10. They may now be partly 

 cleaned of ticks by placing them at the latter date (September 10) 

 in a cultivated field for instance, a rye or vetch or wheat and vetch 

 field and by keeping them therein for twenty days, when a large 

 number of ticks will have fallen off. The partly cleaned cattle may 

 then be removed on September 30 to a field sown to corn and sor- 

 ghum, corn and cowpeas, or a combination of corn, sorghum, and 

 cowpeas, or other forage crops. 



In this field most of the remaining ticks, if not all of them, will 

 have dropped from the animals within twenty days, but in a few 

 instances the cattle may still be infested, so the animals should be 

 moved on October 20 to a cotton field in which rape or crimson clo- 

 ver had been sown at the last cultivation for the purpose of furnish- 

 ing food for the cattle while there. The crops should have been 

 gathered from all these fields before turning in the cattle. Here they 

 are kept for another twenty days (to November 10), not because 

 they would not be free of ticks at an earlier date, but on account of 

 the desire to keep cattle away from pasture No. 1 until November 10. 

 On this date these clean cattle are returned to pasture No. 1, which 

 will now be tick-free as a result of the exclusion of animals since 

 June 1. These cattle should be kept in this pasture until. May, by 

 which time the ticks in pasture No. 2 will have starved owing to the 

 absence of animals therefrom since September 10. Both the cattle 

 and pastures will now be tick-free and the double line of fence be- 

 tween the two fields can be removed and the original pasture restored. 

 This plan, as represented by the diagram, is merely a suggestion of 

 arrangement and may easily be varied with regard to the selection 

 of crops and the location of pastures to suit the demands of indi- 

 vidual farms. To prevent ticks from crawling under either of the 

 fences between fields 3 and 4 and fields 4 and 5 it is necessary to have 

 a board or rail placed tightly on the ground along these lines of 

 fence, or to throw up a single furrow along both sides of the fences. 

 To avoid the danger of infestation from the outside, care should be 

 taken to feed the animals, in those cases where the pastures or fields 

 are overstocked, on hay cut from tick-free fields, and to keep out 

 work oxen, mules, and horses that may harbor fever ticks, thus pre- 

 venting reinfestation of the pasture. When the cultivated fields are 

 on a slope it is advisable to use the lowest field first, in order that 

 the ticks dropped within may not be washed by drainage upon the 

 adjoining fields which are later to hold the cattle. For the same 

 reason, where a stream runs through the fields upon which the cat- 

 tle are to be placed, the field farthest removed from the head water 

 should be used first. Where an endeavor is made to rid a farm of 

 ticks, it is essential that the work animals (oxen, mules, and horses) 



