14 



experiencing the annoyance occasioned by the present federal 

 iinarantine upon cattle from the tick-infested portions of th. 



South. 



Tick extermination will mean not only more rapid growth 

 of young animals and the rapid putting on of flesh, but will 

 Tilso mean the complete elimination of Texas or "acclimating" 

 fever. 



INVESTIGATION OF HORSEFLIES AND DEERFL1KS. 



Next to the cattle tick, the horseflies and deerflies have been 

 among the greatest obstacles to profitable live stock production 

 in Louisiana. These pests, by sucking blood from both cattle 

 and horses, very quickly reduce the animals in flesh and make 

 u couth and gain in weight impossible during the late summer 

 and autumn months in those localities where abundant. 



The horseflies are very closely identified with the spread of 

 -anthrax, or charbon, which disease in some years kills many hun- 

 dreds of animals in the State, and also claims an occasional 

 human being among its victims. In localities where horseflies 

 are numerous, outbreaks of charbon have been invariably fol- 

 lowed by a rapid spread of the disease. Dr. W. II.'Dalrymple. 

 Veterinarian of the State Experiment Stations, regards the dis- 

 semination of charbon by these insects as of equal importance 

 with its dissemination and transmission by the ingestion of in- 

 fected grasses or foodstuffs. Certain it is, that the occurrence of 

 horseflies in large numbers coincidently with charbon outbreaks, 

 makes the limitation and control of the disease much more 

 difficult than it otherwise would be. The intimate relation- 

 ship existing between these insects and the spread of charbon 

 hut adds emphasis to the importance of devising means by which 

 1lu\se pests may be reduced in numbers. 



Very few groups of insects present as many difficulties in 

 ihe determination of life histories as do the horseflies. Most 

 species appear to require in the neighborhood of a year for 

 their growth from egg to adult. The habits of one species and 

 the development of its larva? may be entirely different from 

 those of all other known species, so that each step in the growth 

 of each species has to be worked out slowly, step by step, before 



