Show ANTS THAT GROW MUSHROOMS insects meet make Ex excelled cellen gardeners Gar denert in south america prof 4 J R ainsworth davis gives latest proofs of 0 the ants right to our applause says ears the philadelphia record he says in tropical america the traveler in their native reg region liin oft on en sees thousands of ants DIS marching in column of route each holding in its powerful jaws a piece of green leaf about the size ize ofa sixpence these they take to their nests the material Is used as aj an elaborate sort of mushroom culture requiring much more skill and intelligence than that it in which human beings engage the mushroom grower sets spawn in the boda he prepares pre parea but the ant does docs not need to do this the desired spawn soon eoon makes its appearance in the th chewed leaf but in its natural state it li Is inedible and must undergo care ful ul treatment before it 11 yields the mushroom which the ant de deabren alren the necessary work Is done by a special caste of gardener garden tr ants these weed veed out the obnoxious germs etc aud and pruning off the tips of the threads preventing them from growing crowing into the air and producing useless toad stools As a result of this the larcada twell swell into innumerable erable little rounded white thickenings thicken ings each of 0 which Is about one fiftieth of an inch across it Is these which are the mushrooms these curious bodies constitute the th tole sole food of the antor at any rate the chief food |