482 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



them therein for twenty days, when a large number of ticks will have 

 fallen off. The partly cleaned cattle may then be removed on Sep- 

 tember 30 to a field sown to corn and sorghum, corn and cowpeas, or 

 a combination of corn, sorghum, and cowpeas, or other forage crops. 

 In this field most of the remaining ticks, if not all of them, will 

 have dropped from the animals within twenty days, but.in a few in- 

 stances the cattle may still be infested, so the animals should be moved 

 on October 20 to a cotton field in which rape or crimson clover had 

 been sown at the last cultivation for the purpose of furnishing food 

 for the cattle while there. The crops should have been gathered from 

 all these fields before turning in the cattle. Here they are kept for 

 another twenty days (to November 10), not because they would not 

 be free of ticks at an earlier date but on account of the desire to 

 keep cattle away from pasture No. 1 until November 10. On this 

 date these clean cattle are returned to pasture No. 1, which will now 

 be tick-free as a result of the exclusion of animals since June 1. These 

 cattle should be kept in this pasture until May, by which time the 

 ticks in pasture No. 2 will have starved owing to the absence of 

 animals therefrom since September 10. Both the cattle and pastures 

 will now be tick-free and the double line of fence between the two 

 fields can be removed and the original pasture restored. This plan, 

 as represented by the diagram, is merely a suggestion of arrangement 

 and may easily be varied with regard to the selection of crops and the 

 location of pastures to suit the demands of individual farms. To 

 prevent ticks from crawling under either of the fences between fields 

 3 and 4 and fields 4 and 5 it is necessary to have a board or rail 

 placed tightly on the ground along these lines of fence, or to throw up 

 a single furrow along both sides of the fences. To avoid the danger 

 of infestation from the outside, care should be taken to feed the 

 animals, in those cases where the pastures or fields are overstocked, 

 on hay cut from tick-free fields, and to keep out work oxen, mules, 

 and horses that may harbor fever ticks, thus preventing reinf estation 

 of the pasture. When the cultivated fields are on a slope it is ad- 

 visable to use the lowest field first, in order that the ticks dropped 

 within may not be washed by drainage upon the adjoining fields 

 which are later to hold the cattle. For the same reason, where a 

 stream runs through the fields upon which the cattle are to be placed, 

 the field farthest removed from the head water should be used first. 

 Where an endeavor is made to rid a farm of ticks, it is essential that 

 the work animals (oxen, mules, and horses) used in cultivating the 

 fields be curried to keep off the ticks and prevent the latter from 

 being carried into these fields. Cats should also be kept from the 

 pastures and fields; for, although they do not harbor the mature 

 ticks, seed ticks have been found on them, and while these seed ticks 

 remain only for a short period, this time may be sufficient to allow 

 them to be carried into the disinfected pastures, where they may fall 

 off and reinfest the soil. If a farm or plantation consists of a pasture 



