1906.] 



The Warble Fly. 



483 



from the spinal canal to their position under the hide, and from 

 the putrefaction there, and the hide is injured by the holes which 

 are drilled in it at the time the " bots " or maggots leave the host. 

 The latter consideration led the Association of German Tanners 

 ( Verein DeiitscJier Gerber) to petition the Imperial Chancellor 

 to pass a law for the purpose of combating the warble fly. In 

 this petition it was pointed out that the leaflet on the warble fly 

 and its prevention and remedy, which had been issued by 

 the Imperial Health Bureau and distributed in thousands, had 

 up to the present apparently been unsuccessful. In the leaflet it 

 was recommended that the larv^ should be removed from the 

 animal affected before they attained maturity, and destroyed. 

 The Association of Tanners remarked that this method would 

 not be followed without compulsion, as it was too troublesome 

 and absorbed too. much time, besides which the farmer took no 

 great interest in the matter because the harm done to himself 

 is not provable. The loss to the butchers and tanners is esti- 

 mated at ^^"300,000 to ;^40C,ooo per annum. The Association 

 recommended that in order to compel destruction of the bots 

 in the districts suffering from warble fly infestation, a law should 

 be passed providing for the establishment of a cattle register ; 

 compulsory destruction of bots by cattle-owners, according to 

 official regulations ; the marking of the warbled animals by 

 means of a number branded on the horns, the number being 

 entered in the register ; and yearly revision of the number of 

 cattle. Provision was also to be made for the payment of a fee 

 by the butchers for every branded animal, in order to cover the 

 expenses of registration, branding, &c. 



The Landes-Okonomie-Kollegium brought this petition to 

 the notice of the Chambers of Agriculture, and at the time 

 of Professor Ostertag's report two Chambers had not replied ; 

 two others had expressed themselves as being in sympathy with 

 the petition, but all others as decidedly opposed to it. These 

 latter Chambers suggest many reasons against legislation in 

 the matter, among them being (i) the local occurrence of the 

 warble fly ; (2) the multiplication of police orders for farmers ; 

 (3) the limitation of the freedom of movement of the agri- 

 culturist ; (4) the difiiculty of carrying out the law and the 

 questionableness of the consequences. To such objections 



Q Q 2 . 



