81 



taken against its ravages." Pratt then pointed out how useless it 

 was to treat individual trees while there was a constant supply of 

 termites from the nest-log or stump. 



Unpublished correspondence of about this date shows that one 

 estate on old lalang land had never been troubled by Termes gestroi. 

 The inference would appear obvious, from the presence of Termes 

 gestroi in timber and its complete absence in timber-free land, that 

 clean clearing was the soundest treatment for the pest. Whether 

 this inference was made, and dismissed as impracticable for reasons 

 of expense, there is nothing to tell us. Instead Pratt recommended 

 as " preventive measures " the piecemeal method of tracking down 

 the nest by following runways from attacked trees, and a selective 

 method of dealing with timber. Among native timbers known to 

 harbour Termes gestroi, kumpas, meranti and pulai were given the 

 place of honour. It was recommended that these should not be 

 destroyed at iirst, as " they subsequently afford means of locating 

 Termes gestroi,''' and should then be destroyed with the termites. 



Now these methods predicate, before treatment, the establish- 

 ment of colonies in the timber, and probably serious attacks upon the 

 rubber trees. Surely this is not preventive treatment. Treatment 

 after attack may result in eradication, but preventive measures should 

 leave nothing to eradicate. 



To Towgood, in March, 1909, belongs- the credit of first 

 advocating the preventive destruction of all nesting places. 



After pointing out that white ant timbers varied with localit}^, 

 he went on to describe methods applied successfully by himself. In 

 old rubber these consisted of collecting and destroying all surface 

 timber, and if then there were further attack, to follow the runways 

 down to its source, which was invariably in a buried log or stump, 

 and to bum the whole nest. 



One field of six years old Rambong was interplanted with Hevea, 

 and white ant attack on both was particularly virulent. Five 

 months before writing Towgood had cleared the field of all timber, 

 and no sign of the pest had since been seen. 



In many young cleai-ings, the timbers suitable to Termes gestroi 

 were sought for line by line, sawn through, and burnt if the pest 

 was present. 



For future clearings, Towgood recommended felling the 

 favourite white ant trees first, and allowing them to dry prior to 

 felling and burning the rest of the jungle. In this way he hoped to 

 prevent Termes gestroi ever getting established. 



Now these are all much sounder methods, but naturally they 

 entail greater immediate capital expenditure. Against this Towgood 

 pointed out that in addition to the satisfaction of knowing that the 



