SLUGS AND BIRDS 75 



either among Sweet Peas or any other plants. Ridges of 

 lime placed down each side of a row or encircling a clump 

 are regarded as wonderfully good, and for the few hours 

 that lime so exposed remains alive, all well and good ; but 

 its virtues are not lasting, and the slugs are quite intelli- 

 gent enough to know when they can work freely in it. 

 If lime is relied upon, it must be scattered among the plants 

 at frequent intervals, and will then be found a useful deter- 

 rent ; the same may be said for soot, but this must not be 

 used in a fresh state or it will destroy quite as many plants 

 as the slugs themselves, and the remedy becomes as bad as 

 the disease. Another excellent method of attacking slugs 

 is to dress the soil, in strict accordance with the instructions 

 given by the manufacturers, with one of the several soil 

 fumigants that are now upon the market. Neither slugs, 

 nor any other pest that lurks in the ground, likes this treat- 

 ment, and provided that the instructions are rigidly observed, 

 the plants will not suffer from the applications ; on the 

 contrary, marked benefit can often be directly traced to 

 them, apart altogether from the fact that they destroy the 

 enemy. 



Coming now to the birds, with their voracious appetites, 

 it may be said at once that prevention is the only cure. 

 If the young plants are left exposed, whether they are 

 growing in frames or the open ground, the birds will get 

 all the food they can from them. It has already been said 



