280. Slugs and Snails
Slugs and snails are great enemies to every kind of garden plant, whether flower or vegetable; they wander in the night to feed, and return at daylight to their haunts. In order to catch them lay cabbage leaves about the ground, especially on the beds which they frequent. Every morning examine these leaves, and you will find a great many taking refuge beneath, and these may be killed by sprinkling them with a little lime or salt. These minerals are very annoying to snails and slugs; a pinch of salt kills them, and they will not touch fresh lime. It is a common practice to sprinkle lime over young crops, and along the edges of beds, about rows of peas and beans, lettuces and other vegetables; but when it has been on the ground some days, or has been moistened by rain, it loses its strength.
Let the Ticking Clock Guide the Boiling Crock.
281. Traps for Snails
Snails are particularly fond of bran; if a little is spread on the ground, and covered over with a few cabbage-leaves or tiles, they will congregate under them in great numbers, and by examining them every morning, and destroying them, their numbers will be materially decreased.
282. Grubs
Grubs on orchard trees, and gooseberry and currant bushes, will sometimes be sufficiently numerous to spoil a crop; but if a bonfire be made with dry sticks and weeds on the windward side of the orchard, so that the smoke may blow among the trees, you will destroy thousands; for the grubs have such an objection to smoke, that very little of it makes them roll themselves up and fall off: they must be swept up afterwards and destroyed.