4] 
had applied the kainit. He could not see any reason for considering 
kainit an insecticide, He had tried it for white grubs, strawberry 
root borers, rose beetles, and wireworms and could not see that it had 
any effect upon any of them. If it killed one single individual he was 
not able to see it. ° 
Mr. Lounsbury said he thought there was a great deal to be said 
against kainit and a good deal to be said inits favor. Perhaps weather 
conditions immediately following the application may have something 
to do with its eficacy. For instance, a rainfall might add to its insect- 
icidal value. 
Mr. Webster stated that he had taken particular pains to apply 
water to carry the kainit down, but without effect. 
Mr. Lounsbury presented the following paper: \ 
NOTES ON SOME SOUTH AFRICAN TICKS. 
By C. P. Lounssury, Cape Town, South Africa. 
The purpose of these notes is to present briefly the more important 
of a number of observations made in recent studies on the habits and 
associations of several species of South African ticks. The notes are 
made from memory, and, lest efrors should creep in, detailed particu- 
lars are not attempted. The primary object of the studies was strictly 
_ economic, it being to obtain data that would assist in determining the 
courses best adapted for the suppression of the ticks. Some of the 
species have long been a deterrent to stock farming in certain parts of 
the Cape Colony, and of late years have increased to an extent that 
threatens the progress of the cattle industries in several districts. 
There had been, moreover, a suspicion of long standing in the country 
that one, at least, of the species was in some way associated with a 
generally fatal sheep and goat disease known as “‘heartwater.” This 
disease during the last half century has gradually become extended 
over a tract of country in the southeast of the colony which was once 
capable of supporting several millions of sheep. The fowl tick con- 
sidered is a poultry pest common to many warm-temperate and sub- 
tropical lands. It is the Argas americanus of the Southern United 
States. 
THE BONT TICK. 
The tick of greatest importance, because of its injuries to stock, is 
Amblyomma hebrewm Koch, commonly known as the bont. tick. 
** Bont” is a Dutch word, equivalent to ‘‘ variegated,” and its applica- 
tion in this case has reference to the mixed coloring on the back of 
the male. The bont tick is supposed to have spread into Cape Colony 
from the eastward between sixty and seventy-five years ago, and it is 
still restricted to southeastern districts—the same districts in which 
the heartwater disease occurs. It is the largest of South African 
