4io 
Ants have frequently been accused of attacking rubber seed in 
the bed and one has often found the seed testa cleaned out by them. 
I have always considered this however, to be duetto the seed having 
been injured or killed just after germination by *some accident and 
then attacked by ants. Cracked seeds are often thus destroyed. 
I have never previouslv come across seedlings being attacked by 
ants, nor indeed do I know of any ant here which naturally eats 
growing and living plants though there are many which do so in 
other parts of the world. 
There are however many seed eaters here, which carry off small 
seeds such as grass seeds, or rice to their burrows and devour it. 
To protect small seeds against these pests, the seed (such as that of 
Ficus elastica ) is sown in boxes supported over water so that the 
ants cannot get at them. This would be impracticable of course m 
raising large quantities of Para rubber seed. 
An ant quite similar to the one sent by Mr. LEASE was at one 
time a nuisancq in my house. I succeeded in evicting it in the fol- 
lowing way: Its nest was beneath the boards in one of the rooms 
so I mixed some white arsenic with white sugar and made a little 
pile near the entrance to the nest. In a surprisingly short time all 
the sugar and arsenic was carried by the ants into the nest. Not a 
arain was left, and not an ant survived the meal. I served several 
nests in this way. It is of course easy to find out where the nests 
are by strewing a little sugar or some such bait and watching where 
the’ ants carry it to. Of course, care must be taken to prevent domestic 
animals from getting at the arsenic, and so much must not be 
thrown about as to poison the soil. A salt spoonful of the mixture 
will do for most nests, if piled up near the entrance. 
In ground infested by these pests 1 would suggest breaking up 
the nurseries in plots surrounded by ditches full of water. The 
nurseries should be put in low lying wet ground when it might be 
possible to flood them whenever the ants become troublesome 
Flooding a seed bed for a few hours does not hurt the seeds, or if 
not too deep the seedlings but it is fatal to ants and they soon quit a 
flooded spot. There are a good many safe insecticides known also 
with which the beds might be watered. Most are strong preparations 
of Nicotine. Clubicide is as good an insecticide as can be got and is 
quite harmless to plants. These liquid insecticides however are apt 
to be washed away by heavy rains, and a bed might require to be 
treated several times. 
With respect to Mr. Lease’s two suggestions at the end of his 
letter we would point out that correspondence and queries are 
invited. In the earlier days of the Bulletin we did receive both 
kinds of correspondence and had what might be called a notes and 
queries column but this has fallen off, and as all correspondence and 
queries (other than enquiries as to the rudiments of coffee planting 
and such like queries) are published, readers will judge for them- 
selves what amount of such correspondence the editor receives. 
As to the publishing more figures and descriptions of the latest 
things in machinery more perhaps might be done. The difficulties 
