88 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



nice at the time selected for planting out, and it 

 does a snail-raiser's heart good to see the way 

 his efforts are appreciated. But that is the charm 

 of snails they are so appreciative. Get something 

 very special and they are sure to like it no coaxing 

 needed. They may be said to dote on chrysan- 

 themum slips, and if the variety is new and expen- 

 sive they will travel far to show how highly 

 they esteem it. They eat it down close to the 

 ground, and do not leave a fragment lying about. 

 There can hardly be an amateur gardener who 

 has not lamented the fact that the British people 

 are not, like their Continental neighbours, able 

 to appreciate snails as food. Their indifference 

 detracts greatly from the charm of gardening. 

 With the aids alluded to almost anybody can make 

 gardening a triumphantly successful branch of 

 stock-raising. Indeed, one can hardly help one- 

 self. It is about as simple as pressing a button. 

 Dust out the seed, keep the sparrows from absorb- 

 ing an undue share, and the snail stock appears 

 upon the land and does the rest itself. But it is 

 disheartening to find, when you have discovered 

 the thing you can do really well, that there is no 

 market for the produce. The waste is positively 

 heartrending. Getting up unusually early one 

 morning last May, I captured fifty-nine snails on 

 about ten square yards of varied culture, edged 

 with a rockery rich in conveniently situated sites. 

 They were browsing with an appreciative abandon 

 which quite touched the heart. Next morning 

 I made the hundred of it. There were slugs, too,, 

 which are to snails what sheep are to cattle, and 



