364 New York State Agricultural Society. 
years ago one was found in a decaying log in the forest. But speci¬ 
mens received from correspondents at the west and south show it to 
be still common in the new and sparsely settled sections of our 
country. 
Its becoming thus extinct with the settlement of the country and 
the clearing ofi of its forests, is the more remarkable, since in other 
parts ot the world ticks which are very similiar to this abound in old 
countries where all the tillable land is under cultivation, and even in 
thickly populated cities. I am informed by Mrs. Culbertson, late of 
the Presbyterian mission in China, that these insects are very common 
in that country. She states, that in the city of Shanghae, they are 
constantly fastening upon the dogs, sinking their heads into the skin 
of the dog and sucking his blood until they become enormously dis¬ 
tended, appearing like a large sized bean adhering to the skin, of a 
shining bluish color. It is between the dog’s toes that they are most 
prone to fasten themselves, where only the end of their bodies can 
be seen ; and frequently the crevices between the toes are filled with 
as many ticks as they can hold, others becoming also attached upon 
the body at different points, distressing the dog greatly, and from pain 
and loss of blood he languishes and becomes puny, weak and emaci¬ 
ated, dull and spiritless, and dies if he is not relieved from his tor¬ 
mentors'. It is the common custom, whenever it is discovered that a 
dog is much infested, to have a servant take him and by hand pick 
off every tick upon him. 
In those sections of the country which were settled little over a 
century ago, tradition still speaks of the annoyances which our 
American wood ticks were, particularly when, in the heat of summer, 
the woods were traversed for gathering berries. And the account 
which M. Kalm gave of the habits of this insect to Baron De Geer, 
the correctness of which is also confirmed by Eev. I. Acrelius, who had 
been a resident of this country for several years, shows what a pest it 
was at that period, both to man and beast. He states that these ticks 
were found in the woods, the whole summer through, occurring there 
on the bushes and the plants growing among the bushes, but more 
particularly on the fallen dry leaves of the preceding year, with 
which the ground is covered ; they are there so abundant that if one 
sits down on the earth or on the trunk of some fallen tree, his clothes 
and even his body soon gets covered with them; for though of a 
slow pace, they immediately climb upon his clothing, seeking some 
naked place on the body, on which they instantly fasten themselves 
by introducing their trunk into the skin. Those who go into the 
