CATTLE TICK.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1921, Page 2

CATTLE TICK.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Just a little space in I your paper in' answer to an article re cattle tick ill ydur issue of last Friday. (1) What is the origin of the trouble?—Starvation and poverty without a doubt. It has been in New Zealand for the last 50 years. (2) Is it increasing? —Yes; because stock Is increasing by tens of thousands, and there is not enough, winter feed saved for the cattle. Starvation causes weakness. (3) Is it dangerous?—No, not in New Zealand. You will never see them on a beast that is in good condition. The writer mentions about 6 milch cows being landed in Australia irt the seventies,' 50 years ago. Do you think for a moment tthose cattle were lousey when they left their home.? r No; they would be six months coming out in those days. I should say they would be scurvey, hidebound and crawling with li< for the want of green fodder. That is whtft breeds the vermin. You say the tick is not in Taranaki. What nonsense; they have been here for this last .thirty years, and longer than that. Sir, you call it a tick, but you don’t say what sort he is—large or small, or a grey back or a brown back, or is he a newcomer? No; you say it came to Australia 50 years ago. Have we been all this time finding out that it is dangerous? .No, sir, there has been cattle shipped over from Australia this last 40 years. I call them cattle lice. They vary in size according to the climate. They breed on the weak or poor cattle, or half starved to death. Two years ago I had them very bad among 50 milking cows. I cured them by feeding them. Last year I had 450 tons of root crop, but this j ear I have got fully 800 tons for them, and you won’t find any vermin on them.—l am, etc. . . • J. COLEMAN. Bell Block, March 23.. [We think our correspondent has been misled by the reference in our article to tick infested cattle being as uncomfortable as a man infected with lice, and imagines the cattle tick. we referred to is the ordinary cattle louse. This is not the case. The tick which' is causing the northern fattier so much concern is quite a different insect, and so far, we are glad to say, its presence has not been detected in Taranaki. The cows' which introduced cattie tick into Australia camo from the East Indies, only a few days’ journey from Darwin, where the cows were landed. At the same . time, our correspondent Is quite right in maintaining that proper and ample feed, especially during the winter, will do much to avoid verminous troubles among stock.—Ed.]