50 
WARBLE FLY. 
old woman, and tlie methods of procedure are very simple. When she 
enters the stable of the sick cow she calls for some butter or lard. 
After it has been placed before her she prays for a time to some spirit 
(that I wot not of, nor could I find out). After the spirit of de¬ 
struction is exorcised she takes the butter, and gently covers the 
breathing aperture of the maggot and crosses it. The result of all 
this is that the maggots die, and fall, or are easily picked out, without 
causing the least pain. I know not what good the incantations of the 
‘charmer’ may have exercised, but a little butter or lard, and I 
should say a small quantity of sulphur (I believe the ‘ charmers ’ use 
sulphur), laid on as we have seen, will leave a warble-less hide.”— 
P. M‘Hale Greer. 
As the “charmers” require a good sum for their services, I felt 
sure that the remedy must be one that acted, as well as something 
very simple, and therefore obtained a quiet investigation, with the 
above results. 
Lard and butter answer well as being soothing, in addition to their 
direct effect in killing the maggot, and so does “ cart-grease,” if there 
are no irritating ingredients in it; but some of the mixtures sold under 
this or similar names, as “axle-grease” or “railway grease,” are too 
irritating in their action to be safely applied excepting with care, and 
(till the action is known) watching as to effects. 
The above applications are especially useful in their different ways 
where the back is too tender to be touched ; but lard or rancid butter 
is not always at hand, and for regular work the smears and dips, of 
which so many kinds are furnished by many well-known firms, are 
the most commonly used. 
Destruction of icarble-maggots by application of smears or dressings or 
washes .—It should be carefully kept before the minds of herdsmen, with 
regard both to dressings to keep fly off and to destroy maggots, that— 
though the effect of some kinds lasts a long time—it is often almost 
waste money just to run the animal over with some wash of which the 
effect soon goes off. 
The number of kinds of dressings that will answer the purpose are 
endless. All that is needed is that the grease or mixture should be 
thick enough, and tenacious enough, fora little “dab” of it, when 
placed on the opening of the warble, to adhere firmly, and thus choke 
the maggot by preventing it drawing in air through the breathing- 
apparatus in the two black spots at the end of the tail, which may 
usually be seen in the opening of the warble-swelling.* If, besides 
the above, anything can be added to the application having a scent 
likely to deter attack, it is all the better. 
* This of course does not apply to washes of brine, which are sometimes very 
useful. 
