FLYEN FLYS

in the late 60 s and early 70 s the problem of flys around livestock became more prominent. people figured out that flys would cause weight loss and help to keep livestocl aggutated. at all the same time a untold amount of remedys appeared on the market.  some feed yards mixed insecticide with kerosene or diesel and run it thru a fogg machine mounted on the back of a pickup. there were any number of pour on products that you put on the back of the cattle when being processed.  ear tags that were supposed to repel flys. and last but not least a crop duster  that slow flew over the feedyards applyin insecticide from a hundred feet up. this worked well when the pilot wasn't buzzing the pens and running cattle through fences, killing and maiming them. one day at hughes and ganz we were sorting cattle in a ally. the boss , me , and old ed mcfarkle.  he was watchin the gate while I backed up the boss in the ally, turnnin back anything he wasn't ready to call.  pretty quick the boss cursed and pointed toward the south end of the yard. a crop duster was floatin above the cattle spraying the juice as it went. he wasn't disturbing the cattle much and each pass he made he came closer to us. we couldn't leave the cattle in the ally and go get out of the way so the boss told us to cover our eyes when the plane passed over us. we knew the juice would not only kill the flies but would burn our eyes.  as I turned my horses rear toward the plane I noticed ed was unbuttoning his pants!  what the hell ya doin I asked. if that stuff will kill flies maybe it will kill other bugs as well he said. while the boss and I were regaining out composure the plane passed over head and gave us a liberal dose of insecticide.  we never found out if it killed other critters or not , but ed got the chance to see!!