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taken against its ravages. 1 ’ 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Unpublished correspondence of about this date shows that one 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 ns. 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 first, 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 locality, 
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 burn the whole nest. 
One field of six years old Ram bong was interplanted with Hevea, 
and white ant attack on both was particularly virulent. Five 
months before writing Towgood bad cleared the field of all timber, 
and no sign of the pest had since been seen. 
In many young clearings, 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 tjiis Towgood 
pointed out that in addition to the satisfaction of knowing that the 
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