MISC. Pl'BLIt'ATION 



f. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Tlu'V iMiitlc hi^'^'er wells in tlu' liidi' so (hat I hoy I'ould gjet blood 

 faster. 



Kach of these wells or tick bites makes a sore spot and a mark in 

 the leather made from the hide. (See illustrations on p. a.) 



The e^'<r-layin^ tieks jrot so big and fat that they looked like tiny 

 l)l(i(»<l sausages, or little balloons. Eaieh tick kept itself full of blood 

 all the time. If you had crushed one of them, you would liave seen 

 the blood in it.' The nuile ticks stay brown, but tlie egg-laying 

 licks, when they are fat, are olive-green. 



The big, olive-green, egg-laying ticks look like this: 



lull uTown cue InylriK tick 

 uikI'T iiiiiKDlfyiiig glass 



'Hie ticks sucked so niiicli blood tluit the cow became thin and 

 sci'awny. 'I'he cow was making blood out of feed as fast as she could. 

 But she could not make i)loo(l fast enough to feed the ticks and at 

 the .same time keep well and strong and fat herself. 



The ticks got a lot of the blood that the milk cells of the udder 

 needed for making milk. The cow's milk fell off nearly 2 quarts 

 a day. 



The ticks also got a lot of the blood that should have gone into 

 meat and fat on the cow. 



She was so thin that the l>iilclier would not buy her to kill for 

 meat. 



Ib'i- owner wondered why .-he ate so much costly feed and gave so 

 little milk and <bd not grow fat. 



The reason was that a large part of the feed she was eating did 

 not helj) luM'. but was wasted in feeding the i)loodsucking ticks. 



If these ticks had gotten on a steei' they would have sucked from it 

 l)lood that should have gone to helj) it grow into a fine, heavy, fat, 

 beef animal. 



If the ticks had gotten on a call" they would liaxc sucked so much 

 blood from it that the i;ilt" could not grow inio a strong, healthy 

 cow or steel'. 



You can see that wherevei- there aic ticks the cattle owner will 

 have less milk and biittei- and meat to si'iid to uuirket. He will 

 have to wasti? a lot of feed in feeding ticks which do no good at all 

 and hurt (u kill his stuck. 



