2^6 Mr . Castles's Obfervatlons on 
infers ; in which point of view, however, it becomes 
important. 
If then the above dodlrine be juft, it follows, that the whole 
of our attention muft be turned to the deftrudion ot the nefts 
of thefe ants, and confequently the breeding ants with their 
eggs or young brood. 
In order to effed this, all trees * and fences, under the roots 
of which thefe ants commonlv take their refidence, fhould firft 
be grubbed out ; particularly lime fences, which are very com- 
mon in Grenada, and which generally buffered from the ants 
before the canes appeared in the leaft injured. After which 
the canes fhould be flumped out with care, and the ftools 
burnt as foon as pofiible, together with the field trafh (or the 
dried leaves and tops of the canes), in order to prevent the 
ants from making their efcape to new quarters. The beft way 
of doing this, I apprehend, will be, to gather the field trafh 
together in confiderable heaps, and to throw the ftools as foon 
as dug out of the ground into them, and immediately apply 
fire. By this means multitudes muft be deftroyed ; for the 
field trafh, when dry, burns with great rapidity. The kind 
fhould then be ploughed or hoe-ploughed twice (but at leaft 
once) in the wetteft feafon of the year, in order to admit the 
rains, before it is hoed for planting the cane : by thefe means 
thefe mfedts, I apprehend, will be fo much reduced in num- 
ber as at leaft to fecure a good plant cane. 
But it is the cnftom in moft or the vV eft India iflands to 
permit the canes to rattoon ; that is, after the canes have once 
been cut down, for the purpofe of making Tugar, they are 
* Particular fruit trees may probably be preferved, without detriment, by 
carefully removing the earth from about their foots, deftroying the ants netfs, 
and afterwards replacing either the fame or new earth* 
fuffered 
