20 



nothing "but bamboo. Keep up your benzine treatment and you will kill the insects. 

 * * *— [June 25, 1889.] 



The Texas Cattle-tick. 



Will you please give me the history of the Texas Cattle-tick (Ixodes bovis) or refer 

 me to the literature on the subject ? They are a terrible pest here. — [M. Francis, D. 

 V. M., College Station, Texas, June 17, 1889. 



Reply. — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant, request- 

 ing information concerning the Texas Cattle-tick (Ixodes bovis). This species was de- 

 scribed by Professor Riley in a special report of this Department (Report of Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture on Diseases of Cattle in the United States, 1871, p. 118, foot-note). 

 It is a reddish, coriaceous, flattened species, body oblong oval, contracted just behind 

 the middle, and the whole insect is from one-quarter to one-half an inch in length. 

 It occurs from the Northern States to Nicaragua, and lives not only on cattle but 

 even on the rattlesnake, the iguana, and on small mammals. It no doubt attaches itself 

 to almost any animal that brushes against it in going through the grass. The species 

 is mentioned in a treatise on the external parasites of domestic animals, by A. E. 

 Verrill, in the report of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture for 1870, page 46. It is 

 found in our Northern States, but is, however, most abundant in the Southwest, Mis- 

 souri to Texas, and has been taken in large numbers by Mr. J. McNeil on horned 

 cattle on the west coast of Nicaragua. 



As to remedies, the kerosene emulsion has been recommended for lice on cattle in 

 Bulletin 5 of the Iowa Agricultural Experimental Station, May, 1889, page 185. 

 This would no doubt be the best and most practical remedy for the Cattle-tick also, 

 and is indorsed by Dr. Cooper Curtice, of the Bureau of Animal Industry of this 

 Department, who recommends that the emulsion be made with soap according to the 

 formula originally proposed by this Division. The emulsion should be applied in an 

 8 per cent, solution with a force pump, using the Riley or Cyclone nozzle and a few 

 feet of hose. It thus easily penetrates the hair of the animal, and at that strength 

 can not injure stock. — [June 24, 1889.] 



The Boll Worm in Texas. 



I take the liberty to report to you the condition of affairs in regard to the Boll Worm 

 (Helioihis armigera) and its yearly destruction of cotton, with the view of asking your 

 opinion and advice for my own and the public benefit. I live in one of the northern 

 counties, where cotton is the principal crop. We raise what is known as the Moon 

 cotton, one inch and a quarter staple. This county loses yearly from the ravages of 

 Boll Worms and moth from $300,000 to $400,000 on cotton alone, the moth, in my 

 opinion, doing nine-tenths of the damage. The first crop of the caterpillars appeared 

 in the corn near the 20th of May. On examination the 1st of June four-fifths had left 

 the corn to transform to pupae, but I found caterpillars up to the 10th of June, though 

 scarce. In order to destroy them the planters generally put lamps in the field in the 

 month of May, and expect to continue their use until October. The lamps arc similar 

 to those described in the Agricultural Report for 1880, page 239. The field crop of 

 corn is now in silk and tassel. 



Usually from the 1st to the 10th of August the Boll Worm moth leaves the corn 

 and adopts the cotton as its home. This brood does immense damage, the moth lav- 

 ing her eggs in the squares in the blooms and in young bolls from the size of a gar- 

 den pea. to a partridge egg in preference to any other place. She pierces them as ir 

 done by a needle or pin, and in a few days they drop from the plant. Some farmers, 

 not knowing what insect does this, have given them the name of sharpshooters, 

 and it is yet a mooted question with us. By the time the cotton puts on a new crop 

 of squares and blooms the moth is ready for it again, and if the weather is moist and 

 warm it thus keeps on until frost; hut should a drought prevail, with hot. drying 



