CATTLE TICK ERADICATION 309 



These reports indicate very striking results, and the comment of 

 a correspondent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is worth 

 quoting : " With the prospect of tick eradication, the raising 

 of cattle is springing into life. In years gone by, with the tick 

 depopulating bunches of cattle, there was no money to be made 

 in raising cattle. With the present outlook, men are fencing 

 their lands, and there is sharp competition for every heifer or 

 cow that can be bought. If our authorities will pass a tick 

 law, and see that it is rigidly enforced, we can clear out the 

 ticks in twelve months." 



To return to the remedies, dipping is undoubtedly the best 

 method of eradication, provided an efficient dip be used. 



Dr. Theiler (South Africa) has stated that the eradication of 

 ticks by starvation " must undoubtedly lead to success in every 

 case where we are able to keep the place, for a sufficient length 

 of time, free from such animals as act as hosts," and that a 

 period of fourteen months would be a safe one to adopt in 

 attempting the eradication of the red, brown, and Bont ticks 

 in South Africa by the starvation method. Careful experi- 

 ments made at Gonubie Park, Cape Province, showed, however, 

 that a fenced-in area of 160 acres, from which all stock had been 

 excluded for twenty-one months, at the end of that period was 

 still infested with a considerable number of ticks, and no doubt 

 would have remained so indefinitely, owing to the insufficient 

 barrier presented to the ticks by the fencing, and to the impos- 

 sibility of excluding wild game. The conclusions drawn from 

 these experiments, which included also grass burning, are that 

 the starvation method reduces the number of ticks, and if com- 

 bined with burning, still further reduces it, but that the method 

 fails to eradicate the ticks, and is inferior to a System of dipping 

 at regular intervals with an efficient dip. Burning doubtless 

 destroys a number of ticks if it is done when they are on the 

 top of the grass, but pasturage is usually such a scarce and 

 valuable commodity in this country that burning it is rather 

 too drastic a remedy. Also in regard to the starvation method 

 it must be remembered that there are practical difficulties in 

 the way of enclosing large areas so as to prevent ground game 

 or birds gaining access to it, and bringing in ticks, besides 

 acting as hosts to the ticks already on the ground. 



