MOLLUSCA INJURIOUS TO FARMERS AND GARDENERS. 211 



above stated, of lime and salt, applied especially in damp weather, 

 when these pests are most active. Several gardeners have told 

 me they have experienced very successful results by using 

 ordinary wood-ash, dusted over the infected plant when the dew is 

 on the leaf. In places where the snails come from neighbouring 

 downs or woods a small trench may be dug along the border of 

 the field and filled with soot and lime, or better still, with salt 

 and lime, a precaution which will prevent them reaching the 

 crop ; and if the trench be about a foot wide many of the snails 

 and most of the slugs will be killed in it. Much good may also 

 be done by destroying rubbish heaps, and removing stones which 

 protect them from the heat and dryness of the air. Many ova 

 are deposited in heaps of leaf-mould. If these heaps are dressed 

 with quicklime, all the ova will be destroyed, as well as many 

 other vermin certain to be present. Rockeries and ferneries in 

 and near gardens are often centres from which numberless snails 

 proceed. All rough herbage should be cleared off these in 

 the winter, and in the spring a good dressing of soot put over 

 them to kill the vermin that have hybernated there. As a means 

 of attracting these pests there is no better plan than that of 

 putting brewers' grains near the plants that are being attacked ; 

 both snails and slugs readily go to this and remain there. These 

 heaps may then be removed and burnt ; or quicklime and 

 sulphur mixed together with water may be put over them, and 

 will kill the pests which are feeding there. In this way a garden 

 may soon be cleared of them. During the past spring the South 

 of England has been visited by large numbers of snails and slugs. 

 In many districts it was found almost impossible to keep the 

 hordes of L. agrestis off the early peas and other early garden 

 produce. A certain amount of success attended watering with a 

 small quantity of paraffin in water, and with sprinkling ash soaked 

 in paraffin. Barley-awns soaked in the same I found kept off the 

 slugs to a great extent, the sharp points making progress difficult 

 for them. The abundance of both snails and slugs this spring 

 after the severe winter ought surely to dispel the popular notion 

 that cold weather destroys molluscs and insects. The worst slug 

 attacks have nearly always come after hard winters. No doubt this 

 is largely due to their natural enemies, the Blackbirds and other 

 birds, being killed, and to these " farmers' friends " being unable 

 to attack them when the ground is hard and covered with snow. 



