252 



AGRICULTURE 



the milk or flesh, the harmful bacteria are destroyed; The ten- 

 dency to tuberculosis is increased by anything that weakens the 

 general health of the animal, such as overcrowding in foul, badly- 

 aired stables, feeding bad food, and overproduction of milk and 

 young. The disease is contagious, and animals affected with it 



SHORTHORN STEERS 



The steers in this car-load lot averaged 1544 Ib. in weight; they were prize winners at a 

 Texas Fat Stock Show. 



should never be kept in a stable or herd with healthy ones. Badly 

 diseased cattle should be killed. 



Tick Fever. Tick, or Texas, fever, prevails south of Maryland 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is caused by a parasite, con- 

 veyed by cattle ticks, which are parasites of the southern United 

 States. A tick cannot mature except on an animal. It fixes itself 

 on the skin of cattle at pasture; when full-grown, it drops off and 

 lays its eggs fifteen to twenty-five hundred on the grass. If the 

 young ticks which hatch out fail to fix themselves on animals, they 

 die in a few months. 



