212 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



discovered Generally, the best way of thinning these in- 

 truders is to coax them into one spot, and pour boiling water 

 on them, or to wet their places of rendezvous with strong lime- 

 water ; or lay a few hollow bones about, if they frequent parts 

 where this hot-water and lime-water cannot be used, and, 

 having a pail of boiling water handy, throw these bones into 

 it quickly, and thus destroy hundreds at a time. These may 

 be cb:ied again and placed as before, or in any place where 

 they most abound. Where these industrious little creatures 

 can fairly locate themselves, it requires a good deal of perse- 

 verance to dislodge theuL Of course by pursuing any of these 

 methods earnestly, their numbers lessen very much, and when 

 ' you find but few, stir the tan or soil, or whatever they harbour 

 in, to disturb them still more, and by this means you will 

 finally dislodge them all, or render them so scarce as to be of 

 no importance. The wood-louse is another ugly tenant of a 

 house, and those among the tan can only be trapped and 

 destroyed. One of the most effective traps is half a large 

 potato scooped out and dried, with a notch cut in the edge. 

 This laid hollow downwards will sometimes trap twenty or 

 thirty at a time ; and of course by increasing the number, and 

 laying them about, a larger number will be taken every day. The 

 pail of scalding water to shake them into, is the readiest way 

 of destroying them ; but you must not wet the potato. Turnips 

 are much about the same ; but neither will entice them till 

 the juicy surface is dried. Toads kept in the house will pretty 

 well keep them under where they can reach ; but a toad is 

 not comfortable in warm tan, and it will contrive to get up 

 into one of the pots and bury itself in the soil, so that they 

 are only useful on the floor, where they also make free with 

 any small vermin which invade their territory. Slugs and 

 snails are the most destructive things that can harbour in a 

 house ; they are occasionally brought in among the pots that 

 have stood out of doors, for they get into the draining holes, 

 and make a habitation, whence they sally forth at dusk, after 

 the houses are closed, and commence their meals upon the 

 fii'st, and sometimes the best plants that they can get hold of. 

 Many an hour have we lost in endeavouring to find them, 

 often in vain, although we have traced them a long way by 

 the slimy tracks they left behind, and resorted to night work 

 before we could detect them. On this account, every pot that 

 is brought into the greenliouse or stove for the ^vinter, should 



