718 Retrospective Criticism. 



The Action of Soot on Grubs, (p. 573.) — To test the statement made in 

 p. 573. of the fatal, or at least unwelcome, influence of soot on grubs, I 

 have put two fine fellows separately in garden pots partly filled with a 

 mixture of soot and earth, and have given them the green herbage of 

 potato plants for food. When they have eaten what they like, they bury 

 themselves in the mixture, regardless of the soot. — J. D., sen. 



Anon-'s Device (p. 569.) for preventing the Ravages of Rooks on newly- 

 sown Corn. — It would not much grieve me to see Anon, subjected to a six 

 hours' taste of the misery to which the device he recommends must neces- 

 sarily subject that truly useful bird, the rook ; a bird that confides in man, 

 that builds its nest and rears its young on the trees that shade his dwelling, 

 that follows his plough within a few yards of the driver, and destroys the 

 larvae of numerous insects that would otherwise destroy his crop. Hunger 

 may compel the rook to feed on grain j but it is too well known for me to 

 say any thing about it, that its favourite food is insects in the larva state. 

 But granted that the rook may be injurious to crops newly sown, is our 

 population so thin that no children can be found for 6c?. or Sd. a day each, 

 to keep oiffthe depredators for a few days, until the crop is up ? Yes, and 

 at less expense than Anon's infernal machines would cost him. I have 

 repeatedly examined the crops of rooks. In six young that had been shot, 

 the crops were nearly filled with wireworms ; in the crops of others I 

 have found the larvae of the cockchafer, and other grubs that I am not 

 entomologist enough to know the names of. In one or two instances, in 

 frosty weather, I have examined the crop of one or more rooks that had 

 been shot; it contained dung, earth, and a small portion of grain. I will 

 just notice, that the land adjoining Mr. Wiles's rookery is yearly sown 

 with pulse or grain, and in no instance have 1 known or heard that the 

 land has, in consequence, failed of a crop. — J. D. sen. Oct. 17. 1 833. 



7'ke home-made Snuff {^. 586,587.), tested by a most experienced snuff- 

 taker, and found deficient, was sent hence on Februai-y 13.: and on 

 May 24., when I had the pleasure to see you at Bayswater, Mr. D. showed 

 me the snufF, the bottle which contained it being without a cork, and he 

 informed me, that one person to whom he had submitted it compared its 

 strength to that of the foreign snufF of the shops as 5 to 7 j but that 

 another gentleman was to give a final decision upon its merits. Now, an 

 experienced snuff-taker knows well, that if he were to have his box of high- 

 dried Welsh open only for a day or two, its contents would become vapid, 

 its flavour deteriorated, and its pungency materially lessened. There is, 

 too, another circumstance that I should mention, viz., that no other sub- 

 stance had been added to mine, while the snufFs of the shops are never 

 free from them. I have now some Welsh before me, brought by a friend 

 from Lachern y Medd, a village in North Wales, where large quantities are 

 manufactured : in this I can, without difficulty, distinguish a number of 

 white particles, gritty under the knife, which I presume to be lime, as, on 

 sprinkling a small quantity of this snuff on the surface of some water, these 

 particles invariably sink first ; and on putting some of them, which I have 

 picked out separately, into water, I find that they require, though they do 

 at length dissolve, a large proportion of water to effect it, I took care 

 that the water employed should be free from lime, and on the addition of 

 a solution of oxalic acid, it was again precipitated. It has been always 

 affirmed, and 1 believe with truth, that carbonate and muriate of ammonia, 

 and, in moist snuffs, if not in dry, chloride of soda (common salt), are in- 

 variable ingredients. I have, to some of my own snuff, added a portion of 

 carbonate of ammonia, and find the pungency much increased thereby, as 

 would, from the very nature of the salt, be expected. I was not before 

 aware that lime was ever employed; but we may easilj' judge of its effects 

 from its caustic nature. — J. C. K. Levant Lodge, Oct, 23. 1833. 



