A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



was a moot question in the Texas legislature, which 

 has in recent years got behind the work of eradica- 

 tion with both feet, cooperating with the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry splendidly, both by precept and ap- 

 propriation. There was from the earliest discussion 

 one argument which never failed. Get a man who 

 rejected the tick theory to bring cattle into infested 

 territory, which had never been exposed to ticks. The 

 result was always the same, with this one exception: 

 a fever-tick which found a horse for host dropped 

 and laid its eggs, and the progeny hatched did not 

 carry the fever germ. Some pastures as far north as 

 King and Motley counties became infested by ticks 

 dropped from horses, and there was no bovine mor- 

 tality until they got onto cows brought from below 

 the line but clean when brought in. From such cows 

 the tick again took. on her malignant nature, and her 

 progeny would cause fever. In these northern coun- 

 ties, however, ticks rarely carried over, on account 

 of the cold, but a story made up of scares would 

 make a book, and I had my share of them. 



The quarantine line now, according to a Federal 

 bureau map (Dec. i, 1918), is 90 miles south of 

 Stamford and the same east, with no unclean terri- 

 tory north, and due to the work of the past two years 

 the line is much further south. In five years, with 

 proper local and state cooperation, the fever tick 

 could easily be cleaned out in America. I feel rea- 

 sonably sure that it will be in ten years, or, if not, 



[131] 



