The Bingham County news. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1918-1930, 1921-08-26
RAISE OWN FOOD
Writer Tells of Agricultural Ants
In Central America.
Have Really Comprehensive System OF
"Gardening" as Well as knowl-
edge Of Other Trades.

The dark forests of Central America
shelter a remarkable tribe of agricul-
tural ants, if we are to credit the
testimony Of competent investigators.
These are fOreSterS, road makers,
wood choppers and gardeners, and it
is said they actually plant and raise
all their own food. The traveller in
these forests is surprised to see many
great trees half stripped of their foil
age, and whole tracts of smaller ones
left completely bare, says a writer in
the Christian Science Monitor.
Everywhere, too, he sees little we'll
beaten paths leading in and out, from
the open country to the center OF the
forest, and these are covered with busy
workers. They run to and fro, some
heavy laden with bits of leaf they
have torn from the trees, others empty
handed on their way to market.
These ants, as ii rule, build their
nests on the outer edge Of the forest,
often under some big tree. The roads
are kept in perfect repair by corps of
workers detailed for the purpose
trained civil engineers and road mend
ers, one supposes, who can do their
work intelligently and well. One can
see them picking up stray bits of
debris, or earth, clearing the track Of
everything that might hinder the busy
gardeners in their work.
What becomes of all of the green
stuff they collect? All the ants in that
part Of the world could not consume
such piles of leaves.
The little ants are gardeners, and
the leaves are used in their mushroom
beds. In the first place, they work
the green-leaf substance over into
little brown balls that eventually be-
come a soft, spongy mass, grown over
with fungus germs. On close exam
nation, one can see tiny white knobs,
the swollen ends of hairlike filaments.
These are he mushrooms on which
the farming ant lives.
An enthusiastic student has made
some interesting experiments with the
ants and their garden-truck. He placed
a few ants in a glass dish half-filled
Win tAC SOlI vi IOSC-lcdNCS VI WllCll
they were fond. They made tunnels
in the sand, but left the leaves I'M
touched.
He repeated the experiment, but
placed some of the little ant cab
bages" on n of the leaves, and with
his forceps lifted one Of the impris-
oned ants upon it. The little insect
at once rushed off with the news Of
food to its comrades, and all came hur-
rying up to taste.
The experimental her put into the
dish some of the loose ant food found
In their nests. 1t was curious and
delightful to watch the busy creatures
as they began at once to put it into
order, arrange it in careful piles, and
continue the cultivation Of the tiny
mushrooms.
Another scientist found on an aban-
doned ant-mound a large mushroom
that had evidently been left to grow
up from some spores of ant food left
In the nest. 1t was of a handsome
species; the cap was reddish purple
and dotted over with small scales, the
gills were white, and the spores of a
yellowish color. He planted some of
the spores, and they grew thrifty,
thus proving that the ants really raise
r u mushrooms, and can be said to
follow the occupation of kitchen-gar-
dening.