SOIL AND PREPARATION. 



will nearly do the same ; and these, by their 

 summer shade, will harbour the slugs, which, 

 though they may be mastet^ed pretty completely 

 in the case of corn, and that too, at a trifling ex- 

 pense, are much better kept away altogether ; for, 

 if you neglect them, at the time when the corn is 

 young, they commit dreadful havoc; and it is 

 always to be recollected, that there is not, in the 

 case of corn, that superabundance of plants, which 

 is always found in the case of any of our white- 

 straw crops ; and this is always to be borne in 

 mind, when we are preparing land for corn. The 

 fences, also, which inclose corn fields, ought to 

 be as clear from grass and weeds as possible ; or, 

 at least, they ought to afford as little harbour as 

 may be for slugs and snails, which, if care be not 

 taken, will sally out and bite off the corn, soon 

 after it has come up. A method of destroying 

 them will be pointed out by-and-bye 3 but the less 

 harbour there is for them near the corn, the better. 

 Lofty and thick hedges, and hedge rows, harbour 

 birds, which are mischievous, both in the spring 

 and in the fall ; but if there must be such hedges 

 or hedge rows, the greater must be the care to 

 prevent dilapidation from their inhabitants. 



