antly collected--stones, stone-posts,
the wood-work of native houses which is sometimes for sale; and a careful
eye should also be kept on all the felled wood left in the plantation, as
this is often overlooked till it partially decays, and it is very apt to
be stolen. Trees with a central dark wood, like Jack, may be left unsawn
for some years, but trees which have not, like Neeral or Mango, should be
sawn up as soon as they are dry. Sawn wood should be brought home at once
and stored in a house sheltered from the east wind which dries up the wood
extremely, and a careful list should be kept of it. Wood for rafters is
the better for being put into a tank and left there for four or five
months. I may explain that stone posts (we use the literal translation
from the Kanarese) are blocks of from 8 to 12 feet in length, which are
raised by fire by an ingenious process. The natives first light fires on
the slab of sheet rock they desire to operate on, and then cut small holes
along the segment they wish to split off. They then drive wedges into the
side of the rock, and the segment splits off, giving a stone post of the
length required (they may be raised as long as 20 feet) and about 18
inches wide and 5 inches thick. There are no more useful things to have a
supply of on an estate, and we use short ones for the posts of wire fences
and for stiles. They are particularly useful for supporting verandas.

To prevent white ants attacking the roofs of buildings I have successfully
used the following mixture. Tar, one pailful; asphalte, 2 lbs.; and castor
oil, one seer. Mix and boil these ingredients. Afterwards add sand. Then
plaster the mixture on the top of the walls to the depth of about two
inches, and on this place the wall plates. This plan was adopted when one
of my bungalows was re-roofed many years ago, and we have not a sign of
white ants, though they are numerous all around the house.

If posts, when put in the ground, are buried in sand, and surrounded with
it up to the level of the floor, white ants will not attack the wood, as
they cannot apparently work in sand. This is important to remember, as
wooden posts are often used for cattle, and other sheds.

Toddy trees past yielding toddy should be cut down, split into convenient
sizes for reapers and other purposes, and should then be smoked to
preserve the wood. As I previously pointed out, the toddy tree (_Caryota
Urens_ palm) is a most useful tree, and the seeds o