372 AGRICULTURE 



Freeing cattle of ticks. Treatment of animals sick 

 with tick fever is usually .not satisfactory. The remedy lies 

 in prevention, which means getting rid of the ticks. Sev- 

 eral methods are used for freeing cattle of ticks: (1) The 

 ticks are picked off by hand, or scraped off several times 

 until the animals are free from the pests. (2) The cattle 

 are sprayed or rubbed with cottonseed oil, fish oil, or a mix- 

 ture of kerosene and oil. (3) A dipping vat is used con- 

 taining a carefully prepared disinfecting solution. Care 

 must be exercised not to pasture cattle on land infested with 

 ticks. 



Foot-and-mouth disease. This is a highly contagious 

 disease greatly dreaded by farmers. It attacks not only 

 cattle, but hogs, sheep, horses, dogs, cats and poultry. 

 Human beings may also take the disease, especially chil- 

 dren who drink the milk of diseased cows. Men who take 

 care of diseased stock have occasionally become affected. 



The first symptoms in animals of the foot-and-mouth 

 disease are loss of appetite, and chills followed by fever. 

 In a day or two eruptions the size of a pea make their 

 appearance over the linings of the mouth and tongue ; these 

 small vesicles contain a yellowish watery liquid. The feet 

 become swollen, sore and inflamed. Eruptions may then 

 appear around the feet, and on other parts of the body. 



Foot-and-mouth disease is not always fatal, but the 

 effects in loss of milk, the stoppage of growth and inter- 

 ference with fattening for beef are so serious that the most 

 stringent efforts are made to check the disease wherever 

 it makes its appearance. Affected herds are often slaught- 

 ered under the direction of government officials, and the car- 

 casses burned or buried. Rigid quarantines are established, 

 and no live stock, meat, hides or other animal products cap- 

 able of transmitting the disease are allowed to be shipped 

 from the territory affected. In 1914 and 1915 fifteen states, 



