18 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



FLORENCE. AVhen the ant baby comes out of the 

 cocoon full grown and runs away, what becomes of the 

 other one? 



ANT. That's easy. It comes out of the same cocoon a 

 real fly and sails away. 



Harvesting. 



KENNETH. How do you thresh all this grain you carry 

 home ? 



ANT. We open a seed coat at the weakest place, take 

 out the kernel, and store it away. Then we carry the chaff 

 out to the rubbish heap. We like such seeds as wild oats, 

 foxtail, grass, salt grass, plaintain, filaree, fireweed, milk- 

 weed, star thistle, and all the small relatives of the dan- 

 delion. 



KENNETH. You have an awful time dragging filaree 

 seed with its long, twisted tail; star thistle with its 

 umbrella, and wild oats with its grasshopper legs. 



ANT. The chaff of such seed comes handy to close our 

 doors with about ten o'clock in the morning when we quit 

 work. We close the doors to keep out burglars and to 

 regulate drafts. We keep our babies and eggs in the warm 

 upper rooms in daytime, and in the warm lower rooms at 

 night. 



KENNETH. I notice that you open the doors about 

 three o'clock in the afternoon, and sometimes take the 

 chaff to the rubbish heap in relays, each ant carrying its 

 load about one-third of the way. 



ANT. Yes, but when we open the door quickly, we 

 throw the chaff in a pile until we get time to take it away. 

 As a rule we carry it from the room directly out to the 

 rubbish heap. But sometimes we leave a few loads just 

 outside to close the door with, or we may take it out and 



