412 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



time. These pests feed chiefly a night, but are active during the day in 

 dull showery weather. They are protected by a mucous slime which they 

 exude copiously, and this makes it very difficult to kill them with contact 

 remedies. 



Treatment : Decaying vegetable matter and other refuse lying at the 

 foot of walls or hedges affords a harbouring place for slugs and snails and 

 should be cleared away. 



Thrushes devour large numbers and should be encouraged, as it is easier 

 to guard against any injury they may do to fruit than to withstand the 

 ravages of slugs and snails. Where it is possible to do so without injury 

 to the crops, ducks or poultry may be run over infested gardens early in the 

 morning, when they may be depended upon to discover and devour large 

 numbers. On small areas hand-picking by lamp-light, if done persistently 

 for several successive nights wilt soon considerably reduce their numbers. 



Choice plants and rows of seedlings may be protected by having cinder 

 ash, powdered coke, or powdered lime scattered closely round them. 



Baits of bran-mash or moist oatmeal placed about the garden will attract 

 slugs, which may then be collected and destroyed. Cabbage leaves laid 

 here and there will form a trap for snails, which hide underneath them. 



Dressings of lime and soot, repeated at short intervals, will do much to 

 keep the pests at bay. 



Where a piece of ground is badly infested it may be dressed very early in 

 the morning with a mixture of fresh lime in a finely-powdered condition and 

 caustic soda 4 parts of caustic soda to 96 parts of powdered lime, well 

 mixed and applied dry. Two or three dressings should be given at intervals 

 of fifteen or twenty minutes, and will then prove very effectual in destroying 

 most of the slugs with which it comes in contact. Such ground should be 

 dressed with gas-lime and trenched in the winter. 



A weak solution of permanganate of potash is said to destroy slugs. 



SNOWY FLY (Aleyrodes proletella).This tiny white fly is in some 

 seasons very troublesome on cabbage, sprouts, and other members of the 

 same family. They congregate beneath the leaves in myriads, and when 

 disturbed rise above the plants like a thin white cloud. The larvae is fixed 

 beneath the leaves and protected by a waxy covering. Affected leaves turn 

 yellow or brown from loss of sap, and the plants become dirty and disagree- 

 able from the exudations of the pest. 



Treatment : Collect and burn affected leaves. Spray plants with 

 paraffin emulsion, frequently and forcibly, getting well underneath the 

 leaves. 



SURFACE CATERPILLARS. The large caterpillars of several species 

 of moths (particularly of the Heart and Dart, the Yellow Underwing, 

 and the Common Dart or Turnip Moths) are very injurious to potatoes, 

 turnips, cabbage, and many other crops. They attack the plants at or 

 just below the ground line, often eating entirely through the stem. They 

 hide under clods and stones and beneath the surface soil during the day, 



