210 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



To preserve rose bushes where the slug had been feeding, I should cut 

 off every leaf; burn these and put lime on the ground — air-slaked lime — 

 and in August, I should put on lime the second time, and at the end of a 

 week dig it in ; and in the spring, when the leaf was well formed, piit lime 

 on again. Every slug killed is a gain to the bushes. I have not a Brah- 

 min's tenderness for insect life, and I burn all that I find. Caaai7 birds 

 are fond of those slugs. The wholesale destruction of birds brings its 

 compensation in an increase of insect annoyances. A treaty of peace and 

 protection with the birds would be the surest way to escape from the rava- 

 ges of this multitudinous host. A gardener informed me that a friend of 

 his kept his bushes free from slugs by dashing water on them after sunset, 

 and thus killed the parent flies. I have a climbing rose (Mistress Hovey) 

 in full foliage, and a Russell's Cottage, all its leaves fresh and green, which 

 I have managed as stated. 



I write in haste, fearing, if I wait, it will be too late to benefit the rose 

 bushes. 



Another letter upon the same subject, is from M. B. Arnold, of Eaton- 

 ville, Herkimer county, N. Y. It says : 



My rose bushes were so infested with the slugs four or five years ago, 

 that there was scarcely a leaf on them but that looked as though it had 

 been scalded, and that effectually. I took an old tin pan partly filled with 

 ashes, with a few hot embers and small coals spread over it, and on this I 

 spread tobacco leaves (dried and pulverized) liberally, and set it under a 

 bush, changing it from place to place under the same, shaking the branches 

 after I thought they had enough. I treated each bush in the same way a 

 second time, perhaps within a week of the first, which sufficed for that sea- 

 son. In a short time they put out new leaves, and flourished well the rest 

 of the season. The next summer they paid me another visit, and received 

 the same treatment as before, with like result. I have so much confidence 

 ia the remedy, that I would like to have all the tobacco raised this season 

 and next appropiated for the benefit of the slugs, instead of destroying the 

 health and polluting the breath and lips of fathers, husbands and brothers, 

 all over the land. 



Solon Robinson. — Here is another remedy. It is from The Gardener's 

 Monthly. It says : 



We have made some experiments in order to ascertain how high the tem- 

 perature of water may be, without injury to very young shoots of roses 

 that may be covered with green fly, or aphis, when applied as a remedy. 

 We find the insect readily killed at 120 degrees. One plant of Paul Per- 

 ras, which was plunged three times, for a second each time, into water at 

 135 degrees, has a very few black spots on the tenderest of the leaves. 

 The insects were instantly killed. Water at this temperature is, therefore, 

 perfectly safe for anything. As a remedy against all soft-skinned insects, 

 we regard this as the most simple and effectual discovery ever made. 



