DESTRUCTION OF VERMIN. 215 



and our cabbage-leaf warfare ceased, for we took up hundreds 

 at last without finding an enemy. We cannot help thinking 

 that these creatures had the power of working their way 

 through a good deal of earth, and that our burpng system 

 was of little use. We have since seen tiles used \\ith good 

 effect, but must prefer cabbage-leaves; for they are more 

 attractive, although more troublesome ; and they must save 

 the crops, because they are greatly eaten from the first to the 

 last, while the tiles simply tempt those that are near, as a 

 shelter. 



If a ditch and hedge form a boundary to a garden, it is one 

 of the worst we can have ; for they form a harbour for snails 

 and slugs that it is almost impossible to counteract : the only 

 effectual stop to their intrusion is a sunk or raised trough, the 

 whole length, kept full of water. A ridge of lime is only 

 effective for a short period ; it soon loses its caustic quahty — 

 and this once gone, a snail could crawl on it as well as over a 

 ridge of common earth ; but they cannot get through water. 

 The kind of slug, too, that inhabits the banks of ditches is 

 enormous, as may have been seen of a cloudy evening, when 

 those black monsters intercept our path. One of these could 

 gnaw through a cabbage in a night, or lay a whole row of 

 peas or lettuces under contribution. Costly, therefore, as it 

 might be to make a gutter fuU of water, by means of a wooden 

 or a zinc trough, it would be the only way to prevent their 

 depredations ; for vain would be the task of trapping them, 

 though perhaps a row of cabbage-leaves might tempt them to 

 stop short of any other crop. 



Old walls are too often liarbours for slugs at the lower part, 

 and snails higher up. Often, too, does the other side harbour 

 them, and they have merely to come down to their feast. 

 This is perplexing, for there is hardly any means of prevent- 

 ing them : a trough full of water at top would have the 

 effect ; but if it were not bedded in mortar, and closed on 

 both sides, it would form an additional protection for them, 

 and they would locate underneath it, in a space that would be 

 altogether incredible. Lime here would only prevent them 

 while it retained its caustic quality; and we have been a 

 most unwilling victim to the colonies of these creatures, in- 

 habiting a hundred yards of overgrown ivy, which sheltered 

 them by day, and our peaches and nectarines served them for 

 a feast at night. At length we nailed a horse-hair rope just 



