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Show CAPTAIN AHEK'jj f-iAMFI.ES. Capt. George P. Ah' "Ninth Unitec States infantry, chief of the forestry bureau of the Philippine archipelago, who has prepared a book on the woods of the Philippines, has been in Washington Wash-ington superintending the publishing of the reports of his bureau, which will soon be issued by the war department. He has also" an exhibit of Philippine woods at the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo. The riches of the Philippine Philip-pine forests in both building and furniture fur-niture woods is incalculable, but for use in the islands many valuable species spe-cies are almost useless owing to the ravages of the white ants which swarm there. A few months ago Capt. Ahem reported to the war department that he was making experiments with a variety of native woods to determine their capacity to resist attacks from the ants. He labeled a large number of sample pieces of wood and placed them in an unused house where the ants could operate freely upon them. On reaching Washington, Acting Secretary of War, Colonel Sanger, who follows closely everything done in the islands, inquired as to the result of the experiments. experi-ments. "Mr. Secretary," eaid the captain, cap-tain, "when I went to examine the samples they were all gone." "What!" exclaimed the secretary, "had the ants utterly destroyed them?" "No," answered an-swered Capt. Ahern, "not the ants. Some native, more interested in pot-boiling pot-boiling than in science, had made off with the entire lot." Saturday Evening Even-ing Post. |