Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million: Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts
John Stuart Mill · en
1034. _To prevent the Increase of Pismires in Grass Lands newly laid
down._--Make a strong decoction of walnut-tree leaves, and after
opening several of the pismires' sandy habitations, pour upon them a
quantity of the liquor, just sufficient to fill the hollow of each
heap: after the middle of it has been scooped, throw in the contents
from the sides, and press down the whole mass with the foot, till
it becomes level with the rest of the field. This, if not found
effectual at first, must be repeated a second or a third time, when
they infallibly will be destroyed.
1035. _To prevent the Fly in Turnips._--From experiments lately
made, it has been ascertained that lime sown by hand, or distributed
by a machine, is an infallible protection to turnips against the
ravages of this destructive insect. It should be applied as soon
as the turnips come up, and in the same daily rotation in which
they were sown. The lime should be slaked immediately before it is
used, if the air be not sufficiently moist to render that operation
unnecessary.
1036. _To prevent Mice from destroying early sown Peas._--The tops of
furze, or whins, chopped and thrown into the drills, and thus covered
up, (by goading them in their attempt to scratch,) is an effectual
preventive. Sea-sand, strewn pretty thick upon the surface, has the
same effect. It gets into their ears, and is troublesome.
1037. _Another._--In the gardens in Devonshire, a simple trap is used
to destroy mice. A common brick, or flat stone, is set on one end,
inclined at an angle of about forty-five degrees. Two strings, tied
to a cracked stick, stuck in the ground, with loops at the ends of
the strings, are brought round to the middle of the under part of the
brick, and one loop being put into the other, a pea or bean, or any
other bait, makes the string fast, so as to support the brick. When
the animal removes the bait, the loops separate, and the brick, by
falling, smothers the animal.
1038. _To Destroy Beetles._--Take some small lumps of unslaked lime,
and put into the chinks or holes from which they issue, it will
effectually destroy them; or it may be scattered on the ground, if
they are more numerous than in their holes.
1039. _Another Method._--The simplest and most effectual way of
destroying beetles is by means of red wafers. As it has become usual
to substitute vermilion for red lead in the composition of wafers, it
will be necessary to ask particularly for such as have been made with
red lead. Strew these in the neighborhood of the crevices from which
these insects issue, and their future incursions will be speedily
prevented. Cockroaches may be destroyed by the same means.