294 



niug to opeu will reacli the iusects so satisfactorily tliat no farther rem- 

 edj^ need be desired. The best proportions for central Xew York are 

 one ponnd of the poison to 150-200 gallons of water. 



The Cattle Tick.— Bulletin 24* of the Texas Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, deals with the subject of the Cattle Tick, publishing in full 

 a somewhat elaborate paper by Dr. Cooper Curtice, formerly con- 

 nected with the Bureau of Auimal Industry of this Department, upon 

 the biology of the Cattle Tick, and following this with a short account 

 of the preventive measures in use at the station, written by Dr. M. 

 Francis of the station staff. Dr. Curtice's account is in the main a 

 summary of investigations made while he was still connected with the 

 Department, and is largely a repetition of a paper read before the Bio- 

 logical Society of Washington in 1891. It is an admirable summary of 

 the literature and life-history of the insect, the latter from original 

 observations, and it is illustrated by two plates drawn by Mrs. J. H. 

 Comstock, of Ithaca, ]!^. T. Dr. Curtice sums wp his conclusions under 

 six heads, as follows : 



(1) The ticks were probably brought with the cattle either from southern Europe 

 or northern Africa. 



(2) The life-history of the tick is, 1st, an egg ; 2d, a six-legged seed-tick ; 3d, an 

 eight-legged asexual nymph ; 4th, an eight-legged adult. 



(3) Ticks dropping off where cattle are confined or spend the most time, more 

 especially in their resting places, cause these places to be most infested with the 

 young. 



(4) Ticks are associated with a disease attacking cattle, and their removal has 

 prevented the disease being communicated. 



(5) By taking advantage of the climate and the use of remedies, cattle and cer- 

 tain pastures may be freed from the ticks. 



(6) All cattle intended for transportation to northern fields and markets should 

 be freed from ticks. 



The recommendations of Dr. Francis c(msist in the application of any 

 one of several patented sheep dips, diluted with 98 per cent water. He 

 states, but without showing why, that the kerosene emulsion fails to 

 satisfy the demands. The j^atented mixtures recommended are Can- 

 non's, Hay^ard's, and Little's sheep dips. An apparatus for the easy 

 application of the dip has been devised, and is figured. It consists in 

 elevating a barrel of the mixture on a derrick 16 feet high. From the 

 barrel runs a pipe which divides into five branches, each provided 

 with a short piece of hose and a tin rose. Another hose for hand use 

 is let into the main pipe above the branches. The derrick is built 

 above a slanting i)latform, which collects the dip as it runs off the ani- 

 mal treated into a barrel sunk in the ground, whence it is j)umped up 

 to the elevated barrel for repeated use. The animals to be treated are 

 successively driven under the derrick and the dip turned on, the hand- 



Bulletin 24, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Bryan, Tex., 1892. 



