VOL XLVIII NO. 2045 
NEW YORK, APRIL 6, 1839. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS, 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
fEntered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1889, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.] 
TICKS ON WEST¬ 
ERN PONIES. 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
sideration. The true tick? are really gigantic 
mites. They belong to the spider sub-class— 
Arachaida—and to the order of mites—Ac- 
arina. Thus they have eight legs, simple 
eyes, antennae Like the mites, they have a 
short, broad head—rather simple mouth parts, 
a prominent thoracic, shield—^e Figures 81 
and 82—and the abdomen is neither segmented, 
as is that of the scorpions and harvest-men, 
nor plainly separated from the thorax, as it is 
in the true spiders. Again, the mites and 
ticks have only six legs at first; but eight 
when mature. All the others of the spider 
sun-class have eight from first to last. 
THE TICKS—IXODES. 
The ticks are exter¬ 
nal parasites on warm¬ 
blooded animals. They 
are well fitted to suck 
blood on which they 
subsist. The wood tick 
of my boyhood days 
was a very unwelcome 
and by no means un¬ 
common visitor. As I 
would go to the woods 
for’ pleasure, or the 
cows, one of these 
blood-suckers would 
pre-empt a little spot 
on my neck or back, 
and before I could get 
help would sink its 
barbed rostrum deep 
into my skin and tis¬ 
sues, so that any at¬ 
tempt to pull it out 
would surely tear off 
its head, which would 
be thus left to irritate 
and disturb for hours 
afterward. The Texas 
pony ticks, (Fig. 81, ex¬ 
act size) which vary in 
color from a light 
greenish yellow to red 
or brown are, I sup¬ 
pose, the Ixodes bovis. 
At least they answer 
the description well, 
and work here on both 
cattle and horses. They 
vary as much in size 
as in color. Thus we 
have in our collection 
specimens ranging 
from nine to 15 m. m. 
(from .36 to .60 of an 
iuch) in length. Yet 
all laid eggs, so they 
were doubtless mature. 
Very likely this varia¬ 
tion can tie explained 
by the length of time 
since they bad a full 
meal, and the fact that 
they decrease in size 
as they lay their many 
eggs. Their skins seem 
to be extensile, to ac¬ 
commodate this vary¬ 
ing size. Beneath (Fig. 
SI) we note the eight 
short legs, and two 
openings, one midway 
between the second 
pair of legs or a little 
in front of this, and 
the other posterior to 
a joint midway be¬ 
tween the posterior 
legs. The first I take to 
be the oviduct; the last 
the anus. The position 
of the oviduct, so far 
It is quite a common 
practice of late years 
for speculators to bring 
Texas or Kansas po¬ 
nies—“mustangs” 
from the south-western 
part of our country, 
and sell them at auc¬ 
tion in Michigan and 
other Northern States. 
If done in the autumn 
this is, I dare say, a 
safe and harmless pro¬ 
ceeding ; as I have 
know u several such 
sales late in the season 
aud no evil results fol¬ 
lowed. But if these 
sales take place in 
spring or early sum¬ 
mer, the ponies having 
just come from the 
mild, open winters of 
Missouri, Kansas and 
Texas, the matter as¬ 
sumes an entirely dif¬ 
ferent aspect. In this 
case the purchaser se¬ 
cures far more than 
he bargains or pays 
for Indeed an evil 
is introduced that be¬ 
comes very annoying 
aud may be very ex¬ 
pensive. I refer to the 
ticks—Ixodes—which, 
though they seem not 
to affect so seriously 
the ponies, are most 
terrible pests wlien 
they spread to our 
Northern horses aud 
cattle. I know of sev¬ 
eral cases where horses 
have been so injured 
that they were fairly 
skinned alive; as one 
man said the horses 
were “ externally one 
solid sore.” lu a few 
cases they nave actu¬ 
ally diet!. Not only 
PERCHERON STALLION SEBASTOPOL. Fig. 79. 
have the ticks attacked horses turned in 
the same pasture at the same time, but the 
eggs are so scattered that horses or cattle 
turned in later—after the ponies were re¬ 
moved—became infested, and some valuable 
pedigreed colts were nearly killed before the 
evil was discovered. In one case ponies were 
pastured in a field where there was a straw 
s ack, and weeks afterwards, horses were 
turned in and became the camping and for¬ 
aging ground of these pests. 
S j terrible is this evil, when it comes, that 
1 think, if necessary, it would be wise and 
very desirable to legislate against the impor¬ 
tation of such ponies early in the season. I 
think our winters are too severe for the ticks. 
If this is so, then the fall'mportat ions are 
not objectionable. The Hon. J J Woodman, 
ex-Master of our State, and also the National 
Grange, in conversation with me, said he be¬ 
lieved that a quarantine against these ponies 
was more than justifiable. 
What are these ticks ? The word tick refers 
in our common parlance,to two very different 
kinds of animals. Thu3 we have our sheep- 
ticks and allied animals. These are true in¬ 
sects belonging to the house-fly order, and 
are very different from the ticks under con¬ 
SEBASTOPOL 5272 (7043). 
fit PICTURE of this Bne Percheron stallion 
is shown at Fig. 79 The gigantic size 
of this animal is made apparent by the 
comparative size of the young lady who sits 
on his back. Sebastopol is a very fine speci¬ 
men of his breed. Quite a heated discussion 
has been going on of late in some of the stock 
papers as to the rela¬ 
tive merits of the 
French and English 
breeds of draft horses. 
It is to be hoped that 
some satisfactory basis 
for a test can be ar¬ 
ranged so that the pub¬ 
lic may know which 
horses are best. Se¬ 
bastopol is owned by 
Messrs. Savage & Far- 
num, of Detroit, Mich. 
