Cattle Tick

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

an insect related to the mite. Like other ticks it has a parasitic habit of living on the blood of other animals, particularly cattle. It is a native of the western and southwestern plains where it has become a pest, not so much on its own account, but because it imbibes the germs of the Texas cattle fever from the blood of an infected animal and carries them, just as certain mosquitoes carry the germs of malaria, to healthy animals. Southwestern cattle have become immune to the fever, that is to say, their blood has acquired a quality which prevents the fever germs from multiplying; but northern cattle die of the plague in great numbers. In order to kill the ticks, cattle shipped out of infected districts are dipped by driving them through deep tanks of cottonseed or other oil before loading them on cars. Dipping tanks are now a regular feature of shipping stations throughout the cattle-raising country. At maturity the female tick gorges itself most disgustingly with blood, loosens its hold on the animal's hide, and drops to the ground where it lays its eggs and dies. On hatching out the young climb up bushes and fasten them-selves to passing cattle to which they cling and feed until they are full grown. Catullus (87-54 B. C.), a Roman poet. Catullus belonged to a wealthy and distinguished family. In brilliancy, wit, choice of subjects, style, and disregard of domestic proprieties, Catullus stands with the school of Roman writers most nearly represented in English literature by Shelley and Byron. His extant works are 116 lyric, elegiac, and epigrammatic poems.