DIPPING SHEEP FOR TICKS AND SCABS 437 



such dipping will go far to prevent re-infection by ticks. 

 But to make sure that the freedom from parasitical inva- 

 sion will be complete, a second dipping from lo to 14 

 days after the first dipping is thought necessary in order 

 to destroy the ticks in the one case and the scab mites in 

 the other that may have hatched from nits or eggs that 

 were not destroyed in the previous dipping. 



Viewed from the standpoint of weather conditions, 

 the two best seasons for dipping are those which follow 

 the shearing of the sheep and which precede the bring- 

 ing of the sheep into winter quarters. When sheep are 

 dipped after the usual time for shearing, the dipping takes 

 place at that season when the hazard from dipping is 

 eliminated because of adverse weather conditions ; and 

 when it is done in the early autumn, it is done before such 

 hazard has come to the management of the flock. But it 

 would be better to dip the sheep even in winter than to 

 sustain on them an army of ticks after the winter season 

 has set in. Even though some loss should follow the 

 dipping, it will be less than the loss which follows from 

 allowing ticks or scab-infested sheep to go undipped. 



Some authorities claim that the dipping of sheep 

 twice a year is a necessity — in the spring and in the 

 autumn. These include the names of men who have made 

 a name for themselves in sheep husbandry, and especially 

 in the leading show rings of prominent states. To take a 

 stand in opposition to the conclusions of such men may 

 seem presumptuous; but that is the ground on which the 

 author stands with reference to the sheep tick and also 

 with reference to the scab mite. If the sheep are properly 

 dipped in the spring twice in succession, with an interval 

 of 10 days between the dippings, and if due care is ex- 

 ercised with reference to the safeguarding of the sheep 

 that have been dipped, it should be possible to so free the 

 sheep from parasites that infection would be so com- 

 pletely eliminated as to render further dipping unneces- 

 sary, except in the case of animals brought into the flock 



