44 



often found hard at work. There is room for valuable experimental work in 

 testing the different timbers as regards their resistant properties to white 

 ants in Australia ; something of this kind has been done in other countries. 

 An interesting account is given by H. W. Bates, " On the Prevention of 

 the destruction of Timbers by Termites," in the Transactions of the Ento- 

 mological Society (London), 1864, Vol. 1, page 185. In " The Technologist" 

 (London), 1865, Vol. V, page 453, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley published an 

 account of termites and remedies based upon a report issued by the Com- 

 mittee of Inquiry into the ravages of the white ants at St. Helena and the 

 means of dealing with them. 



In Crichton's History of Arabia, Ancient and Modern (Edinburgh), 

 1833, an account of the termites destroying live trees is given, which the 

 Arabs protect by plastering the stems with sheep dung. I have been 

 informed by one of my western correspondents that sheep dung has been 

 used in the Hay district to protect trees and timber with very good results. 

 Bossavia states, in an article in. " The Technologist" (Vol. V, page 237), 

 that in the gaol at Lucknow, India, a plaster of clay or cowdung mixed 

 with the pulp of the common American aloe was found very serviceable in 

 keeping termites out of the timber. 



Orchard trees and root crops damaged. — In the case where live trees 

 are attacked, as is often the case in the drier portions of the interior, it 

 is very difficult to check them, for all the mineral poisons or oils that can 

 be used in the case of timber cannot be applied to living vegetable tissue 

 without damaging the plants treated. In midsummer the watering of the 

 trees only makes matters worse, as it attracts the termites out of the dry 

 soil into the more agreeable moist area. Sometimes the termites come up 

 from below, and finding a weak spot in the trunk or dead root soon 

 burrow up the centre of the trunk, particularly in old peach orchards, so 

 that it is not uncommon to find a large tree snap off, showing the whole of 

 the stem only a pipe covered with the bark. At other times they attack 

 sound fruit trees from the outside, gnawing off the bark below the surface 

 and boring in at the graft scar. In some places nursery stock is greatly 

 damaged in this manner, the bark being gnawed off the cuttings and 

 seedlings. In the case of old trees being infested, the best thing, unless 

 the tree is a very good one and bearing fruit, is to dig it out, roots and 

 all, and burn it with all the termites. The young trees and nursery stock 

 can be cleaned round and washed with carbolic soap, or other strong 

 smelling mixture. In country where the forest comes right up to the 

 orchard fence it is difficult to keep the outer edge of the orchard free from 

 the pests, but if all wood is carefully burned out of the cultivated land, 

 and all logs and termite mounds fired, the orchard will not suffer so much. 

 I have in quite a number of cases found that the habit of filling up drains 

 through the orchard with timber was the probable cause of the termites 

 attacking the trees. 



Experiments carried out with kainit (German potash) in the Dubbo 

 district prove that it is a good protection to fruit trees when dug in well 

 about the roots. 



