affecting the Clover-crops and Pasture-lands. 61 



were the cause, for at the roots of the green and healthy plants he 

 could find none of the millipedes. There were also a few wire- 

 worms on the ground, which might, he thought, assist in the 

 mischief. In order to destroy the wireworms, Mr. Kelly gave his 

 land the year before a dressing of soda-ash. He further stated 

 that this portion of the land, which was in beans when he wrote, 

 was healthy and free from millipedes". Mr. Kelly then adds : — 



" I'liinking to destroy these dtirk-brown worms, I dressed a row of iuceru, 

 a week since, with soda-ash, putting a small quantity near each root ; another 

 row with a solution in water of soda-ash ; and I tried a row with flour of sul- 

 phur. The dry soda-ash appears to have driven the greater part of the worms 

 from the surface to a few inches below it ; the solution appears to have nearly 

 sent them away from the plants to which it was applied, but the plants them- 

 selves appear injured by the application, and I therefore fear to go on with it ; 

 • the sulphur has produced no effects on either plants or worms, except that the 

 latter have taken themselves out of immediate contact with it." 



As the best modes of destroying the snake millipedes have 

 been fully discussed in the Report already alluded to, we need 

 not further comment on that part of their history. 



SxAiLS and Slugs. 



As these animals frequently' swarm in our fields and gardens, 

 and unquestionably consume a large amount of the clover crops, 

 we cannot introduce their history on a better occasion than the 

 present. There are several species of snails which are denizens 

 of our fields and hedges. 



Snails and slugs being hermaphrodites, every individual is 

 capable of producing eggs. 



21. Helix Hortensis (called also H. aspersa) — the Garden 



Snail. 



The eggs of this species are laid in heaps in the earth, amounting 

 to a considerable number ; I have found at least eighty in one 

 cluster. They are globular, whitish, shining, and not bigger 

 than large shot. In damp situations they soon hatch, when they 

 become at once little, thin, transparent, and nearly colourless 

 shells. They shortly increase to double the size, even when they 

 have had nothing to feed upon ; they then assume a dark ochreous 

 colour, with three imperfect rings, composed of brownish dots and 

 streaks, and a transverse line of tlie same colour next the pale lip 

 or margin, and these spots seem to vary as the animal witlidraws 

 or extends itself, owing to the dark tints shining through the semi- 

 transparent shell. As the snail grows, it has the faculty of en- 

 larging the shell from its own secretions, and when full grown it 

 is as large as a moderately-sized plum ; it is convoluted, obliquely 

 striated, of an ochreous colour, and variegated with pitchy spots, 

 giving it a m.arbled appearance, and forming two or three transverse 



