Memories of Charlton County - by Gibson and Mays Back to Table of Contents 32. DIPPING COWS IN THE SUMMER TIME (Pp 62-64) Ticks got so bad in the woods
once that there was a law that said all cows must be dipped every two weeks in order to try to get rid of the pests. I thought that most of the farmers would be glad to be able to dip their cows, for this service was free, but when the law came into effect many owners of cattle didn't like it at all. The county commissioners built the dipping vats. They were put, as much as possible, close to the farms and each rural community had a dipping vat. They were made of concrete
with the top of the vat level with the ground. The vats were about twenty feet long and were narrow with steps leading in and out of them. The cows were herded to the vat and one at a time they went down the steps and swam through the tick-killing solution and walked out the other end into the drain pit. Someone stood nearby and as the cows left, he touched them with a brush dipped in a bright colored paint. This showed they had been dipped. They used a different color each two weeks. After
they were dipped the cows were let out into the woods again. It was no trouble getting them hack to the farmer who owned them for they all knew the way home. Cows usually sold for $10.00 a head but after the law came into effect, they went down to $5.00 a head, Some farmers had wild cows and didn't want to get them to the dipping vat, so instead of going to the trouble of rounding them up, they sold them. One farmer who lived down below St. George didn't want to go to the
trouble of dipping his cows so he sold his herd at $5.00 a head to Emory Dean. Dempsey Snowmen, Emory and I drove them up to Emory's house in one day. It was compulsory to dip and many farmers fought it; some even destroyed the vats with dynamite before they could ever be used. I was working for Georgia-Florida Investment Co. and they had hundreds of woods cows. Most of them were in the Okfenok Pasture that stretched all the way from Racepond to Camp Cornelia. Sometimes
this was called the "Big Pasture." It was my job to round the cows up every two weeks and get them to the vat. The company had a thoroughbred Hereford bull and the first time it 'was dipped it was gentle as a cat. I just got a bundle of oats from the stable, which was about 100 yards from the vat and he followed it and I ran him through the vat with no trouble whatsoever. When the next dipping vat day came I got a bundle of oats, turned the bull out and he
started to follow me and looked up and saw that dipping vat. He took off with me and Theo Dinkins chasing him on our horses and we didn't catch up with him till we got to Corn House Creek. We turned him back and as we passed Jim Gowen's house we picked up two shotguns and a hand full of shells. The bull ran in the river swamp near Lester O'Quinn's place and I jumped off my horse and shot him in the side. It didn't hurt him bad but it did calm him down. I broke off a little switch and walked
him up the hill and on towards home. When he got there he swam through the vat and laid down, tired out, in the drain pit. I never did have any more trouble with that bull. Theo Dinkins was the range rider and if he found a cow that wasn't painted, he would drive it to the vat and dip it. His job was to see that all the cows were dipped. One day Bob O'Quinn and his daughter drove his cows up and were late getting to the vat, for everyone had gone, including the man with
the paintbrush. So they just ran the cows through the vat and went on home. Several days later Theo went to see Bob and told him he had to get his cows dipped. Bob told him that he had gotten to the vat late but had dipped them anyway. But Theo told him he had to have a witness, the one that marked cows with the bright paint. Theo then started walking back to his horse and Bob was about ten feet behind him, Theo laughed when he told me what happened next.
Bob was disgusted with Theo and his rules that made him take his already-dipped cows back to the vat and was muttering to himself, not knowing Theo could hear him. He said, "There's lots of things I'm proud of, but the very best thing is that my name is not Dinkins!" | 
