KITCHEN-GARDENING. 31 



The same remarks apply to all other insects in a torpid 

 state. 



Worms, maggots, snails, or slugs, may be driven away by 

 sowing salt or lime in the spring, in the proportion of two to 

 three bushels per acre, or by watering the soil occasionally 

 with salt and water, using about two pounds of salt to four 

 gallons of water ; or the slug kind may be easily entrapped 

 on small beds of plants, by strewing slices of turnip on them 

 late in the evening, on which the slug or snail will readily 

 crowd, and may be gathered up early in the morning (before 

 sunrise) and destroyed. 



Moles may be annoyed and driven away, by obstructing the 

 passage in their burrows with sticks smeared with tar. First 

 insert a clean stick from the surface through the burrows ; then 

 dip others in tar, and pass them through into the floor of the 

 burrows, being carefnl not to rub off the tar in the operation. 

 Tar is also an effectual remedy against smut in wheat. After 

 being heated in a kettle until it becomes thin, it may be 

 stirred in among the grain until it becomes saturated. The 

 wheat should afterwards be mixed with a sufficient quantity of 

 wood ashes to dry and render it fit for sowing. Before using 

 tar, however, the seed should be steeped in warm water until 

 the germ is about to appear. Otherwise, tar will exclude the 

 necessary moisture to insure germination; and a long time 

 will elapse before the plants come up. And if too much tar 

 be employed, they will never come up. A very thin coating 

 of tar is sufScient. Coal-tar is better than pine tar. 



To prevent depredations from crows, steep corn in strong 

 saltpetre brine, sow it over the land, or steep your seed-corn ; 

 and if the crows once get a taste, they will forsake the field. 



