98 



THE SLUG. 



of spittle, when become friable or shining, one of these 

 creatures may be traced, frequently many days after it 

 has passed. Various substances, such as tobacco and 

 salt, cause the animal to eject this matter so largely, 

 that it swells, stiffens, and dies, when a little is put on 

 its head. 



The slug is very mischievous in our gardens, espe- 

 cially kitchen gardens, and also in orchards and fields. 

 Slugs chiefly seek out for their food the young shoots 

 of esculent plants. They attack, without distinction, 

 the young buds of trees, and vegetables of all kinds, 

 when they are young and tender ; and when the soil is 

 rich and humid, planted with herbs of which they are 

 fond, and free from the visits of animals which make 

 them a prey, they multiply to excess. They have been 

 known completely to devastate in a single night a ver}- 

 large seed-plat, the plants of which had just begun to 

 shoot forth. Hence the earth, or the edges of the 

 plants, should be covered with ashes, slacked lime, or 

 fine sand; and they should always be kept in a pul- 

 verized state. These substances act mechanically on 

 the animal, and, by attaching themselves to its body, 

 hinder it from walking. 



In their organization, the gasteropoda rise far higher 

 in the scale of being than the acephala, or bivalve mol- 



