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IX. On the Destruction of Snails. In a Letter to the Secretary. 

 By Mr. James Corbett. 



Read September 15, 1829. 



Sir, 



Accounts of many different methods of destroying Snails in gar- 

 dens, and upon turnip fields, have been given to the public, and 

 some of them have been, I suppose, successful ; but all of which I 

 have read or heard, have been attended with a good deal of trouble, 

 and none I am sure, could have succeeded better than that which 

 I send the following account of. The material I use is the same 

 that has been used and recommended by others ; but I discovered 

 that it answered the intended purpose much best when it was ap- 

 plied in the night, and in different parts of the night. I began by 

 sprinkling quick-lime lightly over the beds and adjoining alleys 

 and walks about ten o'clock at night, after a wet or very dewy 

 evening, and I usually found a large number of Snails, many of 

 them exceedingly small, dead on the following morning ; but some 

 always escaped, and I suspected these to be of another species, 

 which did not leave their hiding places so early in the evening as 

 the others. I therefore tried the effect of sprinkling the lime over 

 the same beds and walks about three o'clock in the morning ; and 

 by these means, T in a short time ceased to be troubled with Snails 

 of any kind, in situations where they were before very abundant 

 and destructive. The lime used should be fresh burned, and it 

 should be sprinkled regularly though lightly, not only over the 

 ground but over every plant in the vicinity. It is some years since 

 I have followed the profession of a gardener, but I formerly applied 



