— 90 — 



outside appearances the sash ami frame were as substantial as 

 when new, no trace of their ravajres being visible. 



Last year, Iku ing occasion to change the staging in my green- 

 house, J found the posts measuring four inch square, and which 

 were set on bricks to prevents the Termites from getting at them, 

 were intirely hollowed in the middle leaving only a thin shell of 

 wood on the outside, they had entereil the bottom of the post by 

 making a passage between the two bricks on which the post were 

 set. 



It is impossible in my garden to put a stake, board, posts, or 

 wood of any kind, in or on the ground without having it eaten 

 away by the Termites in the course of the summer, and those of 

 my neighbors who have plank walks are obliged to renew them 

 annually. 



A frame house next door was sagging so much that the owner 

 luul to have it underpinned and raised with stone, it being found 

 that the beams resting on the ground were rotten and " eaten by 

 w^)rms," but I believe that they were devoured by the white ants 

 which annually swarmed in countless myriads frc^m the structure. 

 I also (observed last year in a cellar in the vicinity, the tunnels 

 of the ants running in all directions along the walls, and ceilings, 

 and the posts supporting the centre girder entirely honey-combed 

 by them, and I have no doubt if they had been left at work an- 

 other vear or two, serious damage to the building would have 

 resulted . 



( )n three several occasions I have seen them issuing 1)\- 

 millions during the swarming season from the cellars of several 

 frame houses on Third Avenue, where, although I have not had 

 the opportunity to examine their ravages, I have no tloubt that 

 they were considerable, as the buiklings have settled so much that 

 they have been repaired several times. 



It is not alone to dead wood, whether sound or ilecaying, that 

 they confine their operations, living plants and shrubs are just as 

 liable to their attacks, and some kinds seem to be preferred to the 

 decaying wood which is their natural food, such are geraniums of 

 which they are very fond, eating everything but the outer skin 

 and leaves which they leave intact. 1 had over twenty (20) 

 standard geraniums from two to three feet high destroyed by 

 them in one summer, as well as the stakes which supported iheni. 

 red currants are also liable to their attacks, besides various other 

 shrubs and plants, while the roots of grasses also serve them as 

 articles of food. 



I 



