TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 39 



shedding process, the maturing 

 tick shows three pairs of legs on 

 its clumsy body. The suction ap- 

 paratus of this tick also develops 

 early and serves the insect, after 

 crawling on its host to work its 

 way into the tissues of the ani- 

 mal's skin, when it sucks its body 

 full of blood. It can be imagined 

 how the poor cattle suffer ifrom 

 these minute leeches when thou- 

 sands of these insects are adhering 

 to the catties' body and sucking 

 the life juice out of them. The cat- 

 tle thereby become anaemic and 

 sick, with high fever and diseased 

 inner organs, and often die by the 

 wholesale — all on account of these 

 minute bloodsuckers. 



The enormous loss to cattle 

 breeders by these ticks may best 

 be seen by consulting the official 

 reports of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, and I 

 take the liberty to; append herein 

 reports of W. D. Hunter, Shreve- 

 port, La., and Dr. J. R. Mohler of 

 the Bureau of Animal Industry of 

 this department. They have made 

 most careful, comprehensive esti- 

 mates of the losses caused by 

 ticks. The following summary is 

 taken largely from their writings: 



1. Loss by death from disease 

 in young animals and those re- 

 moved from temporarily tick-free 

 localities (as, for instance, all 

 •cities,) to places where thcy^ be- 

 come infested. The enormous loss 

 Tinder this heading will be under- 

 stood when it is recalled that ev- 

 ery bovine animal in the tick area 

 must suffer an attack of fever if 

 it becomes infested with ticks. In 

 an instance that came to the at- 

 tention of the writers, 39 out of 

 40 calves dropped in a city dead 

 of tick fever when removed to an 

 infested pasture. 



2. Loss in weakened condition 

 and ,stunted growth caused by 

 the fever. 



3. Loss by gross tick infesta- 

 tion. At the present time (March 

 1907) hundreds of cattle in South 



Texas are dying from gross infes- 

 tation resulting from a mild win- 

 ter. In extreme cases, Mr. May- 

 er estimates that as many as 200 

 pounds of blood may be withdrawn 

 from the host during a single sea- 

 son. This makes a gain in weight 

 impossible, even in the best of pas- 

 tures. Morever, Prof. H. A. Mor- 

 gan and other observers believe 

 that gross infestation and the con- 

 sequent general debility induce 

 acute attack of fever even in ani- 

 mals ordinarily immune. 



4. The tick makes hazardous 

 the importation of pure-bred cat- 

 tle. This prevents the upbuilding 

 of Southern cattle and at the same 

 time largely deprives the North- 

 ern breeder of a market that he 

 should have. Moreover, the in- 

 ability of the Southern breeder 

 to exhibit his stock in the North 

 and of the Northern breeder to ex- 

 hibit his in the tick area is a 

 handicap, the importance of which 

 will be readily seen. 



5. The necessary restrictions in 

 the shipping of Southern cattle al- 

 so handicap the breeder and af- 

 fect the price; 



6. The maintenance of flie 

 quarantine involves considerable 

 annual expense for the protection 

 of the cattle owners north of the 

 line. 



7., Minor losses may be grouped 

 as follows: (a) In Texas, espec- 

 ially, the tick induces the attack 

 of the screw worm fly (chrysor 

 myia macellaria Fab.) ; (b.) there 

 seems to be, as pointed out by Mr. 

 Mayer, a considerable interference 

 with the fecundity of the infested 

 cows; (c) the railroads are put 

 tothe expense of disinfecting cars 

 and maintaining separate pens and 

 the stockmen to the expense of 

 dipping — items which react on the 

 price that Southern cattle bring. 



AH the losses that have been 

 mentioned total approximately 

 $100,000,000 each year. At present 

 the loss, as indicated by Dr. Moh- 

 ler, amounts anually to at least 10 



