50 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



'[April, 1 



away all our social and organic institutions 

 and we shall have a poor, miserable and sel- 

 fish state of society. 



It is true, there are many social evils in the 

 world, but it is doubtful whether these will 

 bear the least comparison with solitary evils. 

 Moral influence is as likely to obtain through 

 social proximity, as immoral. It is certain 

 that no great interest can be as effectually 

 advanced by individual effort, as it can by a 

 unity of action. 



" United we stand — divided we fall." 



SNAILS IN GARDENS. 



Dr. Rathton ; — Please tell us in your able 

 monthly, The Lancaster Farmer, what can be 

 done to prevent snails from destroyint: vegetation iu 

 gardens. I have a garden, and in some places they 

 destroy the vegetation. Our cellar is also infested 

 with them, where they destroy articles of food, 

 flowers put there for wintering, the labels on fruit 

 jars, and now they are making their slimy trails 

 upon the kitchen floor. We had heard that salt 

 strewed over the ground would di.°solve them, but it 

 has been tried by my wife, and did not remedy the 

 evil. .She is every few days asking, "What shall I 

 do to prevent the destruction of my plants, and the 

 cellar contents, by the nasty, slimy snails ?" I hope 

 you will be able to tell her in your next number of 

 The Farmer what to do. They are beginning to 

 eat off the flower stalks in the garden now already, 

 SB fast as they peep out of the ground. — /. F. Vi'., 



Lancaster, March 24, 1S82. 



Salt is a very ancient, and generally con- 

 sidered a sovereign remedy for the extinction 

 of snails ; but its power is no more effectual 

 in snails than as a means to catch birds, un- 

 less it is actually "dropped on their tails." We 

 never knew an instance in which a snail sur- 

 vived a copious application of salt. Of course, 

 one grain, or a dozen grains of salt might not 

 hurt them much, but under a generous appli- 

 cation of the saline mineral they invariably 

 yield ; but the salt, to be effectual at all, must 

 come in actual and free contract with them. 

 They will not cross a trail of salt, but they 

 will "flank it," if they can. 



Snails are not very rapid in their locomo- 

 tion, and hence are easily surprised, and 

 ic/ie?i surprised, they make no attempt to 

 escape. They move cautiously, protruding 

 their tentaculse, and feeling their way. 



Snails are great night prowlers ; "they love 

 darkness rather than light :" that, is their 

 great advantage, and they freely avail them- 

 selves of it; but if, in their peregrinations, 

 their tentaculae come in contact with salt, 

 they quickly draw them in, and that is the 

 only quick motion they are capable of. Make 

 a solid circle of salt around any plant you 

 wish to preserve, and no snail will approach 

 it. That is, however, only a preventive; if 

 you wish to kill a snail outright, you must 

 put the salt on its body in sufficient quantity. 

 But salt does not dissolve them. They are 

 very sensitive, and secrete a great deal of 

 mucus or slime; that is their life-function. 

 The salt contracts their pores, or organs of 

 secretion, and hence they die, but the con- 

 tracted body of the animal is still there, al- 

 thouifh greatly diminished in size. 



"Salt-peter and burnt brandy;" ammonia; 

 common lye; a strong infusion of tobacco, or a 

 solutionof whale-oil soap, will answer as well as 

 salt, in destroying snails. Pulverized tobacco, 

 (snuff) coal oil ; spirits of turpentine; pulver- 

 ized lime, and many other substances, includ- 

 ing London-purple, Paris-green and Pyre- 

 thrum — we doubt not, would be equally effi- 

 cacious, but they must be brought into actual 



contact with the body of the offending 

 animal. 



Some species of snails are very prolific; on 

 one occasion we counted one hundred and 

 fifteen under a flat stone, not more than six 

 inches square. These were from a grain of 

 powder to a buckshot in size — one of the 

 many species belonging to the genus Helix, 

 and we have found the common shelless spe- 

 cies almost as numerous. 



Our premises were at one time seriously in- 

 fested with snails, and, we think, we finally ex- 

 tinguished them by starvation and salt. Snails 

 must eat "for a living," and if they can get 

 nothing to eat they die. In the house we 

 closed every aperture from which a snail could 

 possibly emerge, and those that could not 

 conveniently be closed we salted, and if they 

 issued from their cover at night at all, it 

 must have been owJside and not inside of 

 the house. 



Snaile in gardens, may be taken in various 

 kinds of traps, and then destroyed with hot 

 water. 



If pieces of board, say a foet square, are dis- 

 tributed through the garden, not pressed 

 down too closely into the soil, the snails will 

 gather under them before the sun begins to 

 shine on them in the morning. They do not 

 like sunshine. Any other object that will af- 

 ford a hiding place may be as good as a board. 

 If these are carefully examined during the day 

 and the snails killed there will eventually be 

 an end of them. This should be vigilantly 

 continued as long as any snails are captured. 



Cellars, with rough walls and numerous re- 

 cesses, afford many hiding places for snails. 

 Cellars should receive at lea.st one good coat of 

 plaster, to prevent the harboring ot rats, mice, 

 and snails in their walls. Old neglected cellars 

 are prolific breeding places for snails, and 

 other nocturnal species of vermin. One person 

 may be greatly annoyed by snails, and his 

 next door neighbor may have none of them, 

 because he may have no harboring places for 

 them. 



Snails have many natural enemies that 

 feed on them; chickens, birds, ducks, skunks 

 and pigs, are very fond of them. They are 

 al.so destroyed by nighi-roviug beetles, and 

 their larvae.. Both the imago and the lurvce of 

 the Lampyrid^ or "Fire-fly" family. — 

 (Lightning-bugs) prey upon them. We have 

 known a species of Telephorus to attack the 

 common Helix, and "clean out" the whole 

 shell. Mr. Hensel informs me that he saw 

 nearly one hundred of these insects attack a 

 large species of Helix in his garden, and they 

 did not abandon it until they had eaten out 

 the whole animal, and left nothing but the 

 empty shell. 



In mentioning the word shell, be it under- 

 stood, that there are some species of snails 

 that never have a shell, or if they have, it is 

 too small to be readily seen. Others have a 

 small scale-like shell, that does not seem to 

 be of any use, as a protection to the animal ; 

 but others again have an ample and well de- 

 veloped shell, and into which they retire, 

 whenever they are molested. Finally, in 

 France and Germany, they breed, feed and 

 rear snails for the table, and they esteem 

 them as much as we do oysters. Why not 

 take a hint from this ? one is as much of a 

 iiwllusk as the other. 



KITCHEN-GARDEN FOR APRIL. 



In the Middle States, now is the time to 

 plant and sow, if we would hope to reap. 

 Those of us who do not avail of the present, 

 need not expect to profit in the future. 



The exact time, however, in which certain 

 seeds should be sown must depend not only ' 

 on location in respect to latitude, but also on 

 the nature of the soil ; if it be heavy, a little 

 delay will rather promote than retard our ob- 

 ject. It is impracticable, under any circum- 

 stances, to always give undeviating directions 

 — the common sense of each one must be 

 brought in requisition. 



Asparagus sow ; or plant roots, if not at- 

 tended to last month. This vegetable is now 

 coming into season. Wherever practicable, a 

 bed of sufficient size should be permitted to 

 afford an ample supply without cutting every 

 feeble root which peeps above the surface ; 

 indeed, wherever space and means admit, two 

 beds should be maintained, and cut alternate 

 seasons. The colossal asparagus appears to 

 sustain its reputation. Beans, bush or bunch, 

 sow. Broccoli, "Large Early White," is very 

 fine. Beets, early and long, sow. Cabbage, 

 Drumhead and Flat Dutch, sow freely, that 

 there be enough for the fly and to plant ; also 

 other sorts described in catalogues, which will 

 afford an uninterrupted succession, so desira- 

 ble in every country family. Carrots, Early 

 Horn, and Long Orange, sow. Caulifiowcr, 

 late, sow. Celery, sow, if not sown last 

 month. Cress, sow. Cucumber, Early Frame, 

 sow, in warm spot. Horse-radish, plant, if 

 not done. Hot-beds attend to. Leek, sow. 

 Lettuce sow in drills, also plant from beds of 

 last autumn's sowing. Marjorum, sweet, sow. 

 Mustard, for salad, sow. Nasturtiums, sow. 

 Onions, Buttons, for table use, plant, and sow 

 thickly for sets. Parsley, sow. Parsnips, 

 sugar, sow. Peas, early and late, for a suc- 

 cession, sow. Potatoes, plant plenty of the 

 Early Rose for the main supply during sum- 

 mer and autumn. Badish, I^ong .Scarlet, and 

 white and red turnip, sow, if not already 

 sown ; also the Golden Globe and White 

 Summer, for succession. Salisfy, sow. Sage, 

 sow or plant. Tomato, sow, to succeed those 

 sown in hot-beds. Spinach, Bloomsdale, sow 

 at short intervals. Thyme, sow or plant. 



Turnips sow, if not sown last month — they 

 may succeed. In short, this is the season for 

 the main sowing and planting in the middle 

 States. A small exiienditure of time will 

 yield large results. — Landreth''s Bural Beg- 

 ister. 



The next thing in importance to timely 

 sowing and planting, is good seeds, if it is net 

 an absolute jjre-requisite: for, we cannot rea- 

 sonably expect to reap aught except that we 

 sow. It is also a matter of some importance 

 to sow such seeds as are adapted to the soil 

 and the latitude of the locality where they 

 are sown. No prudent man would plant 

 leuions, oranges and bananas iu the Arctic 

 regions. 



Landreth's '■"nriejinal sealed packages'''' of 

 seeds, are perhaps the most reliable and conve- 

 nient form in which they could possibly be 

 presented to the public, and these can be ob" 

 tained not only of Landretlis them.selves, but 

 at almost every .seed store in the Union. 

 Of course, there are also other good seedsmen 

 and good seeds iu the country,but it would ap- 



