45-6 
weeds  take  the  place  of  grass  ;  while  others,  again,  adopt  the  system 
more  or  less  regularly,  though  the  results  so  far  as  the  destruction  of 
ticks  are  concerned  are  apparently  nil. 
One  correspondent  is  opposed  to  the  burning  of  pastures,  because 
of  an  extremely  interesting  discovery  which  he  once  made  in  reference 
to  the  silver  tick  (/I.  cajanense).  He  says  that  ‘in  digging  a  pond, 
ticks,  in  crowds,  turned  up  at  a  depth  of  2  feet  to  18  inches.’  He 
argues,  therefore  that  if  ticks  exist  under  similar  conditions  in 
pastures  which  may  be  full  of  cracks  in  dry  weather  that  burning 
must  be  perfectly  futile. 
Natives,  it  would  seem,  are  also  opposed  to  the  burning  of 
pastures,  because,  in  their  opinion,  fire  causes  ticks  to  breed  more 
freely ;  and  so  firmly  is  this  idea  rooted  in  their  minds  that  it  is  very 
difficult  to  get  them  to  burn  even  those  ticks  which  are  picked  off 
cattle. 
Burning,  of  course,  destroys  all  those  ticks  which  are  upon  the 
grass  or  herbage  ;  but  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  majority  of  those 
which  are  protected  in  cracks  or  crevices  in  the  ground  or  under  logs 
of  wood  and  under  stones  escape  destruction ;  otherwise  it  is 
impossible  that  re-infestation  could  be  brought  about  so  rapidly  after¬ 
wards.  The  explanation  of  the  failure  of  fire  in  the  destruction  of 
ticks  in  pastures  is,  in  the  writer’s  opinion,  undoubtedly  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  ground  had  not  been  cleared  of  all  stock  for  a  sufficiently 
long  period  to  enable  the  ticks  to  lay  their  eggs  and  for  all  the 
grass  lice  to  hatch  and  disport  themselves  over  the  herbage,  thereby 
exposing  themselves  to  the  flames  and  ensuring  complete  extermina¬ 
tion.  To  obtain  thoroughly  satisfactory  results  in  the  burning  of 
tick-infested  pastures,  fire  should  not  be  applied  until  the  eighth  week 
after  the  removal  of  the  stock ;  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add 
that  this  should  be  done  in  the  dry  season,  and  that  none  but  clean 
cattle  or  ‘  horsekind  ’  should  be  turned  into  the  pasture  afterwards. 
It  was  suggested  by  one  correspondent  that  in  his  opinion  '  the  huge 
full-grown  ticks  which  fasten  on  the  “  frogs,”^  which  are  found  in 
great  numbers  at  night  in  burnt  pastures,’  may  be  the  cause  of  the 
re-infestation  of  grazing  land.  The  tick  in  question  {Amblyomma 
dissimile)  is  not  of  any  economic  importance  to  the  pen-keeper,  as  it 
*  Bufa  marinus.  See  also  the  tick  Amblvomma  dissimih. 
