250 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



ferred to a third field for a like period. Ou 10th November the 

 clean cattle are returned to the first half of the pasture, which 

 by this time has become free from ticks. Here they are kept till 

 May, by which time the ticks in the second half have perished. 

 The final result is that both pasture and cattle are free from 

 ticks. 



A single female tick may lay as many as 5,000 eggs, and her 

 progeny may, in the course of seven months, come to number 

 6,750,000,000 individuals. It has been calculated that one beast 

 may, as a result of tick infestation, lose as much as 500 lbs. of 

 blood in a season. This is quite credible when the fact is borne 

 in mind that a female tick, fully gorged with blood, weighs 

 thirty times more than before it began to engorge. No less than 

 28 lbs. of ticks w^ere taken from a horse which died from anaemia 

 resulting from gross tick infestation. A beast, badly infested, 

 weighed 730 lbs. It was freed from ticks by dipping, and two 

 months later — its food and general treatment remaining the same 

 as before dipping — it had gained 285 lbs. Newly-hatched ticks 

 can live as long as eight months ^^dthout food, even during the 

 colder season. In one experiment, cows badly infested with 

 ticks produced 424 per cent, less milk than cows kept free from 

 ticks. 



Finally, tlie total annual loss sustained as a result of ticks 

 in the United States is set down in the official year book as 

 100,000,000 dollars, or nearly £21,000,000. 



DEHORNING CATTLE. 



"In the Argentine very large numbers of the cattle bred for 

 slaughter are dehorned in their youth, with the view, of course, 

 of saving injury when transporting takes place from ranch to 

 freezer. In Australia this has not been done, consequently con- 

 siderable losses have been attributed to injury by the horns of 

 animals which are driven or transported to the freezer. 



"It is well known that polled or dehorned cattle can be 

 managed and fattened w:ith greater facility than horned animals, 

 and that, where a consignment consists solely of hornless cattle, 

 the animals can be conveyed by sea or land with less danger of 

 sustaining injury whilst in transit. The opinion of salesmen 

 and feeders of experience in the cattle trade is to the effect that 

 steers for export, when horned, require more space in railway 

 waggons, on board shi])s and in the market place that they receive 

 more injury in transit and that they are worth from 10s. to 15s. 

 per head less than hornless cattle. 



