How to clean out the system Log files?

I am having some trouble with the system log files filling up my 40gig SSD boot drive on my Mac Pro 4.1.

When I first loaded Snow Leopard on the SSD, it was about 20gigs total. Over the past year, it has balloned to over 38gigs, and it is now threatening to fill up my little 40gig boot drive.

I used GrandPerspective, and found out that almost a third of my drive is taken up by system log files (those in /private/var/log folder). The system log file alone was over 8gigs. My system dual boots with Lion on a different drive, so I was able to erase the large log file with no problems.

However, I would like to know if there is a way in snow leopard to limit the size of the log file, or to periodicly erase them all?

Thank You,
--C. Alan

 

Thanks, I will give it a try.