470 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



sucking parasites. If these parasites are crushed, it will be found 

 that their intestines are completely filled with a dark, thick mass of 

 blood abstracted from the animal host and containing nutriment that 

 should go to the formation of milk, flesh, and the laying on of fat. 

 In some rare cases the large number of bites over a limited area of 

 skin may be followed by infection with pus-producing organisms, 

 giving rise to small abscesses which may terminate in ulcers. The 

 discharge from such sores, or in some cases the mere oozing of blood 

 serum through the incision made by the mouth parts of the ticks, 

 keeps the hair moist and matted together, and the laying and hatch- 

 ing of fly eggs in these areas give rise to infestation with destructive 

 maggots, causing ulcers and other complications that require medical 

 treatment. These statements regarding the secondary injurious effects 

 of cattle ticks also apply to those ticks which have been previously 

 spoken of as harmless in so far as Texas fever is concerned, and, in 

 fact, to all external parasites. Therefore, it is just as important to 

 eradicate the cattle ticks for reasons other than those associated with 

 Texas fever as it is to exterminate lice, fleas, and other vermin. 

 Furthermore, cattle ticks, aside from the losses sustained by their 

 purely parasitic effects, are the greatest menace to the profitable rais- 

 ing and feeding of cattle in the South, because they are an obstacle 

 to cattle traffic between the infected and noninfected districts. 



LOSS OCCASIONED BY CATTLE TICKS. 



The economic aspect of the tick problem is unquestionably of the 

 greatest practical interest, since the fundamental importance of all the 

 other questions which surround it depends upon the actual money 

 value involved. It would therefore seem advisable to furnish a few 

 statistics showing the financial loss sustained by the country as a 

 result of the presence of this parasite. It is well known that those 

 animals, coming from an infected district and sold in the "southern 

 pens" of northern stockyards, bring an average of one-fourth to one- 

 half a cent less per pound than the quoted market price. The handi- 

 cap that is placed on the southern cattle raiser as a result of this 

 decrease in value of his stock will average at the former figure at 

 least $1.50 per head, allowing an individual weight of 600 pounds for 

 all classes of animals, so that the loss on the estimated 705,000 

 southern cattle, including stock, beef, and dairy animals, marketed 

 yearly under these conditions will sum up a loss of $1,057,500 per 

 annum. Carrying this estimate still further it will be found that this 

 decreased value reacts and fixes the valuation of all cattle which 

 remain in the infected territory, thereby reducing the assets of the 

 cattle industry of that section by this ratio per head for the four and 

 a half millions of cattle east of the Mississippi River and the eleven 



