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Show Some Uses of Ants. Ants commonly are regarded as nuisances, yet they have their uses. If you dig up a nest of common brown ants, you will notice, by putting your face close to the hill, a pungent odor arising. This is the vapor of formic acid, the princip'e of ant poison. Now, formic acid has the property of making mak-ing plants grow as hardly anything else will. Therefore the mold of which the ant nests are composed makes a valuable dressing for the market garden gar-den when spread on while it is fresh. Another little known benefit to be derived de-rived from ants is the collection of their egfcs for fish food. In the late summer a good many people make a living by gathering ant eggs In the pine woods of .Surrey and Berkshire, Eng., and selling them to the London fish dealers. |