VI.] CULTIVATION. 



delicacy to the birds. Most farmers have a sou 

 who would rather be shooting a gun off all the 

 day, than be at plough or harrow; and, even if 

 it be necessary to hire a man for the purpose, 

 the cost is not very great. 



86. But these day-light enemies of the corn 

 are much less difficult to deal with than those 

 which come by night. Mice do not eat the 

 spears of the corn, and it is very rarely they can 

 find out the seed until it be got into a state that 

 unfits it for their liking. But the slugs are night 

 enemies; and if they abound, they will do a 

 great deal of mischief, not only near tlie hedges, 

 but in the middle of the fie'lds, if the ground be 

 rough, and have not recently been thoroughly 

 broken ; and especially if it have been weedy 

 during the preceding summer. These are terri- 

 ble enemies, and it is necessary to provide against 

 them by the previous tillage of the land; but 

 you cannot get them out of the hedges and the 

 hedge-rows, whence they will sally forth in moist 

 or wet weather, and in Eiights when the devvs are 

 heavy^ They will sometimes destroy, in great 

 part, a field of wheat. I once saw a field suffer- 

 ing under their attacks in Berkshire. The farmer 

 had laid cabbage leaves about the field as traps 

 for them. The slugs v/ould, soon after day-light, 

 crawl under the leaves ; and then the leaves were 

 taken up, and the slugs killed. This remedy 

 e2 



