SUPPLYING THE COMMUNAL RATIONS 



was occupied by the American troops. When ascending 

 the path that zigzags around the cliff to the summit, a 

 column of these insects was seen marching with their 

 bits of cut-off leaves. On the summit, workers were 

 found close by the dismantled eastern battery. Their 

 fresh-made tumuli were cast up almost beneath the butt 

 of the great guns. The workers were thronging into the 

 central gates, bearing aloft their leafy banners. One 

 could not but wonder: Were these industrious creatures 

 plying their task while Spanish cannons were firing 

 and shells from American ships were bursting around 

 them ? No doubt they did so a type of the army of in- 

 dustry in the insect world prosecuting the humble arts 

 of peace amid the roar of human battle and the clash 

 of arms. If their wee brains could be deemed capable 

 of thinking on such matters, we may fancy their thoughts 

 taking shape in the familiar words: "What fools these 

 mortals be!" -maiming and killing one another when 

 they might be comfortably cutting juicy leaves and 

 chewing them into pulp! 



At an afternoon visit to the grounds of a nurseryman 

 and gardener near Austin, Texas, the leaf-cutters were 

 seen at work. They had come up through the garden 

 from their colony, three hundred feet distant. From 

 this gentleman it was learned that these ants prefer 

 trees with a smooth leaf; are severe upon grapes, peaches, 

 and the china-tree. They take radishes, celery, beets, 

 young corn, and wheat, plum, pomegranate, honey- 

 suckle, cape jessamine, crape myrtle, and althea. They 

 do not like lettuce, nor the paper mulberry, nor figs, nor 

 cedar, except the bud ends in the scant days of winter. 

 They love sugar, grain, and tobacco. This proprieter 

 assured me that the ants made foraging excursions into 



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