Record #:

23714

Author(s):

Kammerer, Roger

Abstract:

“The Dipping Vat War” There had always been a problem with “Cattle Ticks” making cows sickly and puny on NC farms. After WWI experiments were done to combat cattle ticks by building cement vats and bathing cows in a poison arsenic mixture several times. It appeared to work and the cows grew fat and started producing milk again. But there were those around Pitt County who refused to be ordered by the government to have their cattle dipped. Unknown parties blew up government vats with dynamite, threatened other farmers, and shot at vat workers. In 1920 the Pitt County Commissioners authorized the vat campaign to be shut down for the safety for everyone; but were well pleased with dipping campaign as a whole and Pitt County was taken off the North Carolina tick quarantine list.

Source:

Greenville Times / Pitt's Past (NC Microforms), Vol. 31 Issue 3, Mar 6-Apr 5 2013, p6

Subject(s):

Farming--North Carolina, Eastern; Cattle