182 SLUG TRAPS. 
goes, this description of slug abounds as plentifully in our fields as in 
our gardens, for on receipt of my brother’s letter I directed my man to 
~ spread two dozen slices of turnips in a field where I have sown parsnips 
and planted potatoes, and the next morning he brought me 186 slugs, 
which had sheltered themselyes under these traps. The letter is as 
follows :— 
‘¢ T send you a description of a snail which the gardener and farmer 
with us find so destructive to their crops, and also of the traps by which 
we have succeeded in diminishing their numbers. ‘The snail, or, as 
it is here called, the slug, is about the one-fifth of the size of the black 
snail. His back is of a darkish tinge, and his belly of a dirty white, or 
brownish. ‘The traps consist of circular slices of white turnip, about 
half an inch in thickness and three or four inches in diameter. My 
experiments with these traps only began on Tuesday last. They 
were conducted by my servant, who brought me four or five largish 
turnips (the larger the better), and’ cut them in slices as above- 
mentioned, forming forty-one slices, or traps. Each slice, or trap, 
was placed at a distance from its neighbouring trap of abont fifteen 
feet. The traps were set on ground planted with beans, though they 
are not so fond of this vegetable as of peas, and more so of kidney 
beans. ‘They have also a great liking for the early cabbage; they 
have devoured mine of this year. They have no objection to a lettuce, 
nor any to the early turnips, as the farmers find to their cost ; in short, 
there are few vegetables they will not devour. They begin upon them, 
to wit, turnips, &c., as soon as they appear above the ground. They 
will also attack the potato under ground, but this oftener occurs in 
frosty weather, when they are more under the surface of the earth than 
upon it. I have mentioned that these traps were set for the first time 
in my garden on Tuesday last, and they are so inviting to this kind of 
snail, for shelter and food, that on Tuesday night, or early on Wednes- 
day morning, there were 400 caught; on Thursday morning, in the 
same traps, there were 860; on Friday morning, 200; on Saturday 
morning, 200; and on Sunday morning only 50, in all 1210. Iam 
inclined to think the few that were caught on Sunday morning not 
altogether owing to the numbers that had before been taken, but also 
to the night being frosty ; they are not so much inclined to seek for 
food above the surface, and do not moye far for it. When the slices 
or traps are raised, some of the snails are found adhering to the slice, 
sucking it with their mouths expanded like a leech. ‘They make small 
holes in the sliced turnips, not unlike what would be if a small scoop 
had been used. I omitted to say that the traps are put in my straw- 
berry-beds, where many are destroyed—some satisfaction, when I think 
of many of my finest ripened strawberries they have sucked or scooped 
out, leaving only a part of the outside of the strawberry. That it has 
been this description of snail who was the depredator, I offer this 
further proof. It is my practice to put cut grass around each plant 
before the strawberries begin to ripen, to prevent the heavy rains from 
splashing up the dirt upon the strawberries; but when they are ripe, 
and particularly those that were the finest, I have found them with 
holes, and sometimes all the pulp sucked or scooped out, leaving, as I 
