32 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN 
second band gives each piece a thorough wash¬ 
ing and cleansing, by carefully licking it all over 
on both sides. Then the pellet-makers tackle the 
job, and the fragments are chewed and rolled 
into small balls, after which they are carried to 
the gardens by another force and pressed care¬ 
fully into the surface of the mushroom beds. If 
it is a new bed, no doubt mushroom spawn is 
then scattered; in the case of rebuilding old beds, 
enough spores probably remain to start the new 
growth. In either case, it is only a few days until 
the little leaf pellets are covered with a fine growth 
of white fungus threads, which flourish freely so 
long as the mass beneath remains light and 
spongy. When a mushroom bed becomes too ex¬ 
hausted to furnish further food for the ant hosts, 
the little creatures turn their cattle in to clean up 
the rubbish. These cattle are a special kind of 
beetle, which the ants lick carefully, getting 
something akin to milk which the beetles secrete. 
“ All ant colonies keep cows. Rut it is the 
aphis, or plant louse, that is considered the true 
milch cow of these intelligent little people. It 
gives a sort of honey-dew which is much relished 
by the ants, and the little creatures have proven 
themselves very shrewd dairymaids. They not 
only raise and care for their cows, often carrying 
them bodily from one pasture to another, but 
they drive away their natural enemies and pro- 
