398 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



Every negro on the cotton plantations of the infested dis 

 tricts knows what to do when the gnats come, and there is 

 not one of those plantations on which a bucket of tar and 

 lard is not carried to the field, each morning, in the season 

 for gnats, nor a horse or mule but is thoroughly smeared 

 with them. The mixture is composed of one part of tar to 

 two parts of lard, and of this a very thin coat is spread upon 

 those parts of the animal where the gnats light to suck 

 his blood. Coal oil is very efficient in keeping the gnats at 

 bay, but its effects do not last like those of the tar mixture. 



The Borer-worm. — This is the larva, or maggot, of a hairy 

 or wooly fly that infests the plains of Texas, and is the ter- 

 ror of the cattle and horses of the prairies, large numbers 

 of whom the borer- worm destroys annually. Woe be to the 

 unlucky cow or pony that has the misfortune to receive a 

 cut or puncture, or a wound of any kind, sufficient to draw 

 blood; for this fly is sure to be there, and to deposit its 

 eggs within the wound. From that moment the animal is 

 doomed. The worm is furnished with an augur-like fang, 

 with w^hich he penetrates into the flesh ; and this is the be- 

 ginning of the borer-worm's bunch. 



The animals of the prairie all manifest an instinctive dread 

 otf these flies, and when the skin is cut or torn in any man- 

 ner, so that blood flows from it, they appear to be aware of 

 their danger. As the fly comes about, the alarmed creature 

 starts to run away. This is the sure means of collecting 

 hundreds of these flies, which dart with lightning-like veloc- 

 ity upon the warm and oozing blood and deposit their eggs, 

 and the work of destruction at once begins. The victim 

 stops when completely tired out, and begins to exert himself 

 to drive these terrible enemies away. Had he done so at 

 first, perhaps his chances would have been better. But now 

 the fearful work once commenced, the poor creature yields 

 to his dreadful fate, and thousands upon thousands of mag- 

 gots are soon busy within the wound. As the part inflames 

 it swells to an enormous size, the worms, meanwhile, contin- 



