362                 Damage to hides caused by Cattle Ticks in India

Cooper Cattle Dips) observe : ' Cattle ticks have a very deteriorating effect
upon hides and calf-skins, particularly calf-skins. We do not buy many
Southern hides or skins on account of the ticks, but when we do get some here
we are obliged to sell them for No. 3 stock at about one-third less price than
good Northern stock free from ticks. This does not apply so much to heavy
hides for sole leather purpose but for all light hides and calf-skins, it renders
them altogether useless, for all kinds of leather. It would be greatly to the
advantage of all concerned, both hide dealers, tanners and cattle raisers, if
something could be done to destroy ticks.' Messrs. Emery & Co., Chicago
(cited in the same work), write : ' Ticky hides or Southern hides do not sell
for as much money as the Northern hides. These ticky hides when unhaired
are all spotted and make a very poor leather and most tanners refuse to buy
any Southern hides at any price.' Mr. J. M. Bond, Chicago, remarks : ' In
regard to cattle ticks, I would say that they damage the hides so badly
that very few of them can be sold in this market and when they are sold,
the price is from 2 to 2½ cents lower than the price of our Northern and
Western hides. This reduction is largely due to tick damage, though partly
to poor take-off. I handle very few Southern hides on account of ticks.'

Considering the ecological conditions of India which are very favourable
to the increase of tick population, the writer is of the opinion that the tick
problem is probably not less serious in India than it is in the United States of
America, where an enormous amount of money is spent every year upon the
control of these pests. A large percentage of the chrome leather now pro-
duced in India is finished with the grain left on so that all imperfections and
tick marks on the grain side show very plainly. Formerly leather for uppers
was made from bark-tanned stock and was buffed and the grain removed.
For this leather tanners could use cheap hides that were covered with imper-
fections and tick marks. The situation today, as it has been explained, is
very different, as there is an increasing demand for grained leather, and for
this large proportions of Indian hides will not be available until the tick is
eradicated.

        EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON TICK DAMAGE

' The injury caused to hides by the perforations made in the skin
by the maggots of the Warble-fly are familiar to most cattlemen. They
are large and local (on the back) and form conspicuous blemishes that at
once discount the value of the hide stock so affected. The smaller but much
more numerous pit marks made by ticks are less familiar to them because less
obvious, but are recognized by purchasers of hides as by no means negligible
blemishes, not only because they are punctures in the hide substance, but by
reason of the permanent stains that surround each puncture on the finished
leather.'.— Damage to Hides caused by Cattle Ticks.

The blemishes caused by tick bites are variously described by experts
in handling hides as ' abrasion upon the grain of the hide', ' break in the grain