May 24, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
597 
GETTING- RID OF SLUGS AND 
SNAILS. 
“ Saint Andrew ’’ asks, “ Is there no royal method of 
despatching these I ” I deeply sympathise with him, 
and all the more when I must, from experience, answer 
in the negative. There are, however, several methods 
of diminishing—in fact, as in my own case, reducing 
to a minimum—their numbers, and their consequent 
depredations ; a few of which may interest your corre¬ 
spondent, and thousands like him just now, when, so 
far, we have had the wettest May for many years. 
1. —Constant tillage and stirring the ground. This 
has fifty advantages. Slugs have their lairs and 
passages, where they retire after the night’s havoc. 
The hoe, spade, or fork spoils their amusement that 
way, so far as the soil is concerned. 
2. —Allow no hiding places in the garden for them to 
retire to. The first thing I did last year when coming 
to live on a new property and town garden that came 
to me was to rigidly “ point ” and fill all holes in the 
garden wall. The next was to remove old palings, 
pieces of walls, bricks, slates, and fifty other nooks and 
crevices which were their happy hunting grounds for 
centuries. 
3. —Do not kill slugs, snails, &c., on the garden 
beds, walks, or alleys during procreation time. This 
is the commonest and most thoughtless of all methods 
of increasing the supply unwittingly. I discovered this 
casually one day when on a visit in Lancashire ; strolling 
through the garden with the lady proprietor, she 
suddenly pounced on a big shelled snail, and with a 
pious imprecation crushed him, partially, undera dainty 
boot, on the path. Coming that way two days after, 
judge my surprise on seeing numbers of young snails 
all around the corpse. The fact was, that the sun heat 
had matured the uncrushed eggs even more quickly 
than if they had been buried in the soil, which is the 
usual method, and where my lady friend had hut one 
before, she now unintentionally had scores. When 
crushed in the soil, the shell is often not broken at all, 
and the snail and his house, after a decent interval to 
recover from the fright, gaily proceeds on his devouring 
nocturnal visits. 
4. —Allow no permanent trees, shrubs, or large 
perennials in the garden, or at all events convenient to 
the beds, that might serve as secure refuge or retreat for 
the pests. If there are such, rigidly clean around 
them, even remove the lower branches or leaves within 
a foot of the ground, scatter lime, freshly-slaked, soot, 
and subsequently, if it is desired to consult appearances, 
dry peat-mould or coal-ashes—both most objectionable 
to them—over the lime. 
5. —If possible make your next neighbour follow 
your example. My next neighbour takes little 
interest in his garden, and allows the walls to become 
infested with them ; so much so, that for months I 
had to go out in the evenings to give a by no means 
cheerful welcome to the reptile fraternity coming across 
a 12 ft. wall to visit me. This is neither a joke nor 
imagination, and if any reader is similarly circumstanced, 
I will confidently appeal to him for confirmation. I 
took it that many of these were former acquaintances 
of my garden, that when light came on the previous 
morning they “ made tracks ” across the wall (there were 
no holes on my side to hide them), and they entered on 
the succeeding night considerably reinforced. Have slugs 
an intuitive method of thus communicating with their 
fraternal progeny 1 It would seem so, but by persistent 
war my neighbour’s contingent, as well as my own, has 
now been reduced to a minimum. 
6. —Never pass one without committing slugicide. 
Every gardener and amateur especially should carry 
a pair of scissors, those with blunt points, like drapers’, 
being the safest, to be used in despatching the voracious 
enemv. I have not much confidence in lime, soot, &e. ; 
a shower of rain leaves these innocuous, and an hour 
afterwards slugs creep over them with impunity. 
Lettuce and other succulents, bran, &c., are good traps. 
It is useless to talk to me of liquid “ slugicides ” that 
are said to be “harmless to the tenderest vegetation 
and death to slugs.” I do not believe it. There is a 
black hard slug that anyone can find under Pansies for 
instance ; throw hot lime on him—he moves away and 
shortly divests himself of that outside skin, and goes 
on his way rejoicing. I commend him to “ slugicide ” 
advocates. 
Lastly, if possible use no edgings to your beds like 
Box ; they are merely handy and convenient refuges for 
slugs. Ammonia-water from gas-works will kill slugs, 
but it is dangerous for anything except the Cabbage 
tribe. It will thus be seen that the remedies are more 
preventives than otherwise.— IF. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
Like your correspondent, “St. Andrew,” I am very 
much troubled with slugs. This year threatens to be 
one of the worst. Already plants outside are very 
much disfigured by their ravages. I am afraid there is 
no means of destroying them on a large scale without 
applying materials that would damage tender crops. 
As a preventive I apply coal ashes. First put the 
ashes through a moderately fine riddle, then spread 
them along the rows of vegetables, or amongst seedling 
plants in beds. Slugs dislike to travel on dry gritty 
ashes. By adopting this method I have been able to 
get small seedling plants established when other 
remedies, such as lime and soot, were a failure. Salt 
is a good preventive amongst strong-growing plants, 
but must be used with extreme caution where plants 
are tender.— J. Charlton, Farnley Grove Gardens, 
Corbridge-on-Tyne. _ 
Oor best seed beds of the Brassica family are situated 
close on the sea shore, and receive the full effects of 
winter and spring gales in frequent dressings of the 
briny spray. The plants are none the worse for it, 
however, but, on the contrary, have a constitution 
which will enable them to stand any part of the 
country, and there are no slugs within reach of the sea 
spray. “St. Andrew” is probably located too far 
inland to derive any benefit from sea spray. Let him 
therefore take of sodium chloride (common salt) a 
common-sized tumbler full, and boil it in 2 quarts of 
soft or rain-water, stirring it occasionally when boiling 
to prevent the salt from settling on the bottom. When 
cold, add 6 quarts of soft water, and let it stand. In 
the evening, with a fine-rosed can, water the seed beds 
with this solution, and early next morning, before the 
sun gains much power, water again with clear water. 
Treat your walks in the same way, and you will not be 
troubled much with weeds or slugs. —Ayrshire Tam. 
NARCISSUS GRACILIS 
The latest flowering yellow Daffodil is now in its best 
condition, having come into bloom about a week or ten 
days ago. It is a very old garden plant, but has never 
become widely distributed in British gardens. Such 
should not be the case, for it is a graceful plant as the 
specific name implies, with much larger flowers than 
those of the common Jonquil, which it succeeds. The 
leaves are narrow, deeply channelled down the face, 
and slightly shorter than the flower-stems, which are 
freely produced, and bear one or two, more rarely three, 
flowers each. The perianth segments are clear bright 
yellow, and spreading ; while the small obconic 
corona is deep yellow. It is said to have first been 
found in a wild state near Bordeaux many years ago. 
--—- 
THE ORCHID KING. 
The presentation of Mr. Sander to the Queen at 
Waddesdon Manor, on the 14th inst., is an event in 
the annals of Oreliidology. The distinction will be 
regarded by students of that charming culture as an 
acknowledgment of its supremacy and a presage of 
public favours to come still more striking. All who 
appreciate Orchids would wish to see the growing of them 
increase and spread downwards, so that every house¬ 
holder who has a bit of glass should taste something of 
those pleasures enjoyed as yet only by a comparatively 
few. To achieve this excellent purpose it is necessary to 
destroy the superstitions which environ Orchid culture, 
and superstitions perish as knowledge advances. Year 
by year already the growth of these delightful plants is 
multiplying by leaps and bounds, as every flower show 
proves. At the Crystal Palace last week, in an open 
class for cut flowers, the first-prize winner showed 
eighteen Orchids among twenty-four sprays of bloom, 
and everyone of the competitors introduced them more 
or less. Most true lovers of their kind would hasten the 
conversion of the public by every means. It may be 
hoped that loyal Britons who hear how a professional 
grower of Orchids has been distinguished by their 
Sovereign will inquire and even read a little on the 
subject. They will find that the cultivation of Orchids 
is not necessarily more expensive than the cultivation 
of Camellias—and much less troublesome. 
That vast establishment at St. Albans which Mr. 
Sander founded and directs is familiar by name to 
botanists the whole world over. There may be growers 
whose miscellaneous collection requires more house- 
room (the amateur would be rash who made com¬ 
parisons of this sort among the leviathans of the 
present day), but nowhere on earth assuredly is an acre 
of land put under glass and devoted to Orchids alone. 
Foreigners and sightseers travel to Manchester, 
Birmingham, and elsewhere to behold wondrous but big 
ugly factories ; they would find a spectacle more 
amazing to those who can think, and a marvel of 
beauty besides, within a score of miles of London. 
They would see one house 400 ft. long, 26 ft. wide, 
18 ft. high, piled up with Cattleyas, mostly in bloom, 
and ceilinged with baskets overhead. They would see 
20,000 plants of Odontoglossum crispum in flower at 
once, 30,000 sprays of O. vexillarium all open. Twelve 
such houses they would find side by side, each 180 ft. 
long, and the narrowest 32 ft. wide. One of them is 
occupied all down the middle with a tank of Victoria 
regia and tropical Nymphieis ; but about this hang 
thousands and thousands of Dendrobium Dearei, with 
great bouquets of snowy flower. Under every stage 
Orchids are suspended head downwards—imported 
masses these, waiting in the cool and damp until the 
busy introducers find time to deal with them. There is 
an underground world also, where cases arriving from 
east and west and south—very nearly all the tropical 
and sub-tropical countries of the globe—are unpacked 
and sorted. Here also the printing of the Reichen- 
baclda is carried on : those gorgeous annals of 
Orchidology, for which a Gold Medal was awarded at 
the International Horticultural Exhibition in Berlin 
last month. 
Mr. Sander’s establishment is not yet ten years old. 
Its owner is a self-made man in the strictest sense of 
that expression. A native of Prussia, he came to 
England in 1867 merely with a view to learn the 
language, and found employment with Messrs. Carter, 
of Forest Hill. There he made an acquaintance which 
decided his career. Roezl—we would not vulgarise 
such a man with the stupid “Mr.”—took a fancy to 
him. It is necessary to explain to the public that 
Roezl was the greatest collector of plants that ever 
lived, whose services to botany are priceless. His agent 
at that time was Mr. Ortgies, of Zurich ; for the Con¬ 
tinental interest in new plants was greater at that time 
than ours. English enthusiasm grew fast, however, 
and Roezl appointed his young friend sub-agent in this 
country. Two other collectors of fame only surpassed by 
his, Messrs. Wallis and Endres, followed the example. 
Mr. Sander then took small premises in George Street, 
St. Albans, which are now a succursale of the vast 
emporium. There was no thought of growing Orchids. 
The collectors sent their spoils from one country or 
another, and the agent sold them as best he could. 
The coup which brought him into general notice was an 
importation of 150,000 Mexican Orchids sent by Roezl, 
which filled the little house from cellar to roof. That 
is still a legend of “ the trade,” for no such wholesale 
plunder can be found now in a world which has been 
swept by armies of collectors. Then Roezl retired, 
after forty years’ wandering in the Tropics. Endres 
died at Santa Marta, and Wallis very soon after at 
Guayaquil. Are not their names chronicled among the 
martyrs of Orchidology? Wallis was a Protestant, and 
the priests refused him burial; medical students came 
in the night and carried off his body. Mr. Sander, 
however, foreseeing that these veterans must leave him 
soon, had begun to train a younger generation with 
Roezl’s advice. It was his supreme good fortune, if we 
should not say his merit, to attract the interest of Mr. 
Nathaniel Rothschild, and all that powerful family 
became his patrons. Such, in barest outline, is the 
career of the Orchid king just presented to Her Majesty; 
and it is a token of the height to which the scientific 
culture of the Orchid is now being carried,— St. James’s 
Gazette. 
