312 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



and it is recommended that a furrow be thrown up on both 

 Bides of the fence for the same purpose. The feed-lots should be 

 situated at the boundary of the field, so that the cattle may pass 

 from <>ur to the other over the adjoining tick-free ground. 



The Pasture Rotation Method. — The infected pasture is 

 divided into two parts by a double line of fencing 10 ft. apart. 

 All tick-infested animals are excluded from the first half of the 

 pasture, from 1st June to 10th November, thereby rendering it 

 tick-free. The tick-infested cattle are placed on the second 

 half, where they are kept from 1st June to 10th September. 

 They are then partly cleaned of ticks by putting them in a 

 cultivated field, cleared of its crop, for twenty days. The partly 

 cleaned cattle are then removed to a second cultivated field, 

 where the remaining ticks will fall off within twenty days, but 

 if any remain they are transferred to a third field for a like 

 period. On 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 

 t irks 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 5000 eggs, and her 

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

 6, 7 .")(), 000,000 individuals. It has been calculated that one 

 beasi 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 were 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 I wo 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 without 

 food, even during the colder season. In one experiment, cows 

 badly infested with ticks produced 42£ per cent less milk than 

 cows kept free from ticks. 



Finally, the 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. 



