602 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



certainty, until 15 or 20 days more have elapsed, which will be 

 much longer than necessaiy for all ticks to drop during July and 

 August, 



If desirable, the corn in each lot may be cut and removed before 

 the cattle are placed in it. As soon as possible after the cattle are 

 removed from a lot the female ticks and eggs present on the ground 

 should be plowed under and the ground along the fence sprayed 

 with crude petroleum or some other disinfectant to prevent any seed 

 ticks which may hatch from getting beyond the area of the lot. 

 Another valuable precaution will be to use for feed, as far as pos- 

 sible, the com oppasite or in advance of the lot in which the cattle 

 are located, since this is less likely to harbor seed ticks. 



The pasture will be free of ticks by November 1^ and the cattle 

 may then be returned there if desired. The herd may, however, be 

 continued on field No. 3A as long after that date as the forage lasts, 

 or, in case of a shortage of feed previous to November 1, it may be 

 moved to either field No. 2 or 4, provided one of these is ready for 

 pasturage. These fields may be used for fall and winter pasturage 

 in any way that may be found desirable. 



Dipping^ spraying^ amd hand dressing. — Ticks upon cattle may 

 be destroyed by using various " tickicides," such as oils, arsenic, etc. 

 These may be applied in three ways, namely, by hand, by the use 

 of spray pwmps, and by means of the dipping vat. 



Hand application is practicable only when a few animals are to be 

 treated. The substances of value in this method are a mixture of 

 lard and kerosene, cottonseed oil, or a half-and-half mixture of 

 cottonseed oil and kerosene, and finally, crude petroleum, which 

 in general has proved the most effective, although it has some draw- 

 backs, chief of which are the difficulty of obtaining oil of the proper 

 quality, its expense, its bulk, which makes its transportation costly, 

 and the liability of injury to cattle when the treatment is applied in 

 hot weather. Any of these may be applied with a mop or a good- 

 sized paint brush, but unless great pains are taken this method of 

 treatment is not thorough, and even at the best some portions of the 

 body where ticks may be located will be missed. 



Spraying is adapted for small-sized herds. The arsenical mixture 

 or the crude petroleum or emulsions of the same may be applied by 

 means of an ordinary pail spraying pump (fig. 5). There are also 

 pumps on the market designed for making a temporary mechanical 

 mixture of oil and water. Cottonseed oil, or cottonseed oil and kero- 

 sene in a half-and-half mixture, or crude petroleum, may be used in 

 these pumps, and a 20 per cent mixture of any one of these will kill 

 most of the ticks. 



Dipping in a vat is on the whole the best and cheapest method of 

 applying remedies when large herds are to be treated. 



