64 Parkes on the Use 



. cise, else I shall extend this paper to too great a length to be 

 read at a single meeting of the Society. 



The farmers who reside in the counties near the metropolis, 

 and in several other districts in England, never put their seed- 

 wheat into the ground until they have first steeped it in a very 

 strong solution of common salt, as they find this to be a specific 

 against the rust or blight in wheat, and that it prevents insects 

 from preying upon the seed. As this practice is so efficacious 

 in preserving seed-corn, why should it not be adopted with 

 garden seeds, such as those of onions, carrots, turnips, radishes, 

 celery, parsley, and the like ? 



The HONEY-DEW, which every year makes great havoc with 

 fruit-trees, is, I believe, occasioned by small insects ; and this 

 may be entirely prevented from appearing by strewing the 

 borders where the trees grow with common salt. Ants never 

 appear in those parts of a garden where salt has been properly 

 strewn ; and how destructive these little animals are to trees,' 

 as well as to fruit, is well known. I have no doubt but that 

 the fly in hops might also be prevented by the proper use of 

 common salt. 



Last year a gentleman called upon me from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, to ask me if I could contrive any method of 

 destroying an insect which attacks the vines in that colony, and 

 produces incalculable mischief. He informed me that this 

 is a peculiar insect, about the size of the millepedes,, or common 

 wood-louse, which creeps up the vines, and does so much mis- 

 chief, that some plantations are rendered quite unproductive by it. 

 Every crop would indeed be entirely destroyed, were it not that 

 the proprietors of the estates keep a great number of women 

 and children to pick off these vermin. These singular insects 

 burrow very shallow in the ground in the day-time, say half an 

 inch under the surface, and in the evening they come up upon the 

 trees. The female slaves and their children go every night to 

 the proprietor, carrying with them in their hats the produce of 

 their industry, which he examines separately, and then empties 

 it into a tub of water, which stands by him for the purpose. 

 The slaves and children are then rewarded according to their 



