224 THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



soil is as effectual as a heavy dressing, and the repetition of the thin dressing will in 

 time bring the whole piece into so clean a state, that vermin will be virtually unknown. 

 We come next to consider special means of eradication, and these are many. 

 Trapping should be followed up in a systematic manner wherever vermin abound. 

 Small heaps of brewer's grains will draw snails together in a most convenient way 

 for killing them. Lettuce leaves placed under empty flower-pots will collect the 

 woodlice in dozens or hundreds, and, while they can get lettuce, they will not care 

 to eat anything else. Slices of potato, carrot, and apple are also good baits. 

 Moreover, any dry and dark hiding places soon get filled with woodlice, and a dose 

 of boiling water poured into such dens daily, without disturbing the materials of 

 which the dens consist, will clear them off wholesale. Tlie writer of this has waged 

 ■war in all sorts of ways with these plagues for many years, having valuable collec- 

 tions of plants in a garden which is surrounded with breeding grounds for all sorts 

 of vermin. Among other methods adopted, one is to put a few empty pots one 

 inside the other, in cucumber frames, and every morning to pour boiling water 

 into them. The water soaks into the bed and does no hai-m if near the woodwork, 

 and when the pots are shaken asunder dozens of dead woodlice are found. But 

 another and more systematic plan is adopted, and, having proved eminently success- 

 ful, we advise any of our readers who are situated as we are, to proceed as follows : 

 Procure a portable copper — that is to say, one of those " iron coppers " which are 

 made for boiling water in the open air for tea-parties, and which are often used in 

 outhouses by laundresses. Londoners can find such in Barbican and Old Street, 

 and the prices range from thirty shillings to three or four pounds each. Suppose a 

 border, in which asters, stocks, phloxes, and pentstemons are planted, and in the rear 

 of the border an old pivet hedge, out of which the vermin issue in swarms. Such, 

 indeed, is the nature of our border on which the operation is conducted. In the 

 front of this border a number of small flower-pots are plunged to the rim. Every 

 evening these pots are filled with lettuce-leaves, pea-shells, slices of cucumber, or 

 whatever tempting stuff is at hand. The pots are then covered with cabbage 

 leaves or tufts of moss, with, in short, anything through which woodlice can push 

 or a snail eat its way. Every morning a fire is lighted with garden rubbish, such as 

 debris of woodstack, etc., and a few gallons of water are obtained boiling hot. A 

 dose of this is poured from a water-pot into each of the traps. In the evening the 

 traps are cleared out and filled again, and so on for ever. This appears a tedious 

 process, but without it we should have to I'elinquish horticulture under our present 

 circumstances. We adopted the "iron copper " to make an end of the diurnal row 

 between the gardener and the cook, the latter refusing the thermal element, or 

 because of the demand made upon her, putting the cuisine hors de combat. Now for 

 the ants. If the nests are so situated that boiling water can be administered, why 

 the remedy is easy enough. It is very seldom, however, that this can be done, for, in 

 the first place, the water cannot be obtained, or the nests are in places where the 

 destruction of vegetation by the process could not be borne. It is not generally 

 known that fresh Peruvian guano will drive ants from any spot, however firm a 

 hold they may have obtained upon it. Suppose a colony of ants to be commencing 

 operations on a lawn, it is an easy matter to trap them all by placing a large empty 

 flower-pot, with the hole stopped, over it. The ants will build up into the pots, and 

 in a short time it may be lifted with a shovel and be carried away and dropped into 

 a vessel of water, which will make an end of it. When they make a run up the 

 stem of a frtiit tree, a line of gas tar all round will put a stop to their progress and 

 do no harm to the tree. To poison them, mix arsenic with sugar and water, put the 

 mixture in a saucer, and lay a slate over it, and on the slate a stone. This of 

 course, is a dangerous plan, and any one who thinks of adopting it must use their 

 own judgment as to the safety of any larger animals. In Jones's "Gardener's 

 Receipt Book " it is said that ants will avoid any tree which has a circle of chalk 

 round it. Having never made use of chalk to check their movements, we cannot 

 say if this be true. 



