An Ant’s Grain Field.
In this circle all weeds and all kinds of grasses are cut down, except the one kind which the ants like. The earth of the disk is kept clean and smooth. Only the seeds of the ant-rice are left to grow.
When the ant-rice is ripe, the ants pick up the seeds as they fall, and take them into the hill to their storerooms.
It is most likely that as the ants let this ant-rice, and nothing else, grow on their hills, it sows itself by its fallen seed.
Still the ants are real farmers, as they keep their land clean, tend and gather the crop, store it up, and eat it.
When the ant-rice is ripe, and the seeds have fallen, the ants cut down the old stems, and take them away. The disk is then clean for the next crop.
The ants will go a long way from their hill to find seeds to bring home. They like to go where horses have fed, for there they find scattered oats. In some lands they carry off much grain from the fields.
An ant in Florida climbs the stalk of the millet and cuts off the seeds. When ants take seeds to their hill, they husk and clean them. They throw bad seeds away.
The ants watch the seeds, and after rains carry them out to dry in the sun. This is because if left wet, they would sprout and grow.
Some ants also cut the seed, so that it will not sprout.