LOSSKS VllOM LICKED liEEF. XXIX 



the pricldy-coated warble-maggot, must keep up a perpetual uneasiness, 

 and retard the growth of our feeding cattle to our loss, it may be, of 

 £2 per head. In the dairy cows the loss will be greater. The daily 

 loss of milk may make a difference of 1 cwt. or f cwt. of cheese per 

 cow per annum. Half a hundredweight, or 12|- per cent., of milk less 

 in a dairy making 4 cwt. at 70s., comes to 35s. ; but 121 per cent, is 

 too low an estimate : it may in some cases be put at £3 per head, 

 and in a dairy of 100 cows would show a loss of £300." * — D. Byrd, 

 Spurstow Hall, Tarporley, Cheshire. 



With ref/ard to direct loss in value of the carcase of the animal by beef 

 beiiKj what is called " licked.'' — In some serviceable observations with 

 which I was favoured in 1889 by Mr. John Child, managing secretary 

 of the Leeds and District Hide, &c., Company, as to details requisite 

 for forming estimate of our British loss in the aggregate from warble- 

 attack, he mentions: — "The greatest loss on the worst carcases of beef 



1 ever saw, taking a number together, would not be less than £1 per 

 carcase, or Qd. per stone ; of course there are some exceptional cases 

 worse than these, but they are rare — in fact so rare that they should 

 not come within your calculations. 



" I think I am right in saying that the depreciation in the value of 

 licked carcases of beef are from Qd. per stone down to Id. per stone, 

 and as the highest figure named comes in fewest number, the average 

 figure for reduction in value should not be taken at more than 2(Z. per 

 stone. Take the average weight of cattle affected by ' lick ' and 

 'Warble' at forty stone, we have thus a loss on the carcase of 

 6s. BfL"— J. C. 



This estimate of our scale of loss or lessened value on this one item 

 appears to run lower than that in America. The above estimate at 

 1(/. to &d. per stone equalling 3s. 4f^. to 20s. per carcase at average 

 weight given, runs a good deal lower than the Chicago estimate of 



2 dollars to 5 dollars per carcase, that is, 8s. to 20s. of our money. 

 Our highest estimate is considered to occur so rarely comparatively, 



* The above note also formed part of a paper communicated by Mr. Byrd to the 

 ' Chester Chronicle ' of Feb. 7th, 1884:. Mr. Byrd's mention of " the Warble and 

 Gad Fly " is very important, as these two very different attacks are often confused. 

 The Gad Fly, Tahauus bovunis, is much larger than the Warble Fly ; it does not 

 injure the animals by means of its grubs, as these feed in the ground, but it causes 

 mischief by driving its sucking apparatus into the cattle very painfully and drawing 

 away the blood, and also, like the Warble Fly, by terrifying them into the wild 

 gallops we know so well. From some of the various subsequent observations given 

 it appears that the applications noted as useful to keep off one sort of fly are 

 equally useful to keep off the other ; and this point of the cattle so dressed being 

 able to feed in peace whilst the others were being hurried in a^ll directions is well 

 worth consideration, 



