V
It was in fuch an afpedt that the fnow on the author's evergreens
was melted every day, and frozen intenfely every night;
fo that the lauruftines, bays, laurels, and arbutufes looked, in three
or four days, as if they had been burnt in the fire ; while a neighbour’s
plantation of the fame kind, in a high cold fituation, where
the fnow was never melted at all, remained uninjured.
From hence I would infer that it is the repeated melting and
freezing of the fnow that is fo fatal to vegetation, rather than the
feverity of the cold. Therefore it highly behoves every planter,
who wifhes to efcape the cruel mortification of lofing in a few days
the labour and hopes of years, to beftir himfelf on fuch emergencies;
and, if his plantations are fmall, to avail himfelf of mats,
cloths, peafe-haum, ftraw, reeds, or any fuch covering, for a
fhort time; or, if his fhrubberies are extenfive, to fee that his
people go about with prongs and forks, and carefully diflodge
the fnow from the boughs : fince the naked foliage will fhift much
better for itfelf, than where the fnpw is partly melted and frozen
again.
It may perhaps appear at firft like a paradox ; but doubtlefs the
more tender trees and flirubs fhould never be planted in hot
afpedts; not only for the reafon afligned above, but alfo becaufe,
thus circumftanced, they are difpofed to fhoot earlier in the fpring,
and to grow on later in the autumn, than they would otherwife do,
and fo are fufferers by lagging or early frofts, For this reafon
alfo plants from Siberia will hardly endure our climate; becaufe,
on the very firft advances of fpring, they fhoot away, and fo are
cut off by the fevere nights of March or April.
Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the fame inconvenience
with refpedt to the more tender fhrubs from North-America; which
they therefore plant under north-walls. There fhould alfo perhaps
be
be a wall to the eaft to defend them from the piercing blafts from
that quarter.
• This obfervation might without any impropriety be carried
into animal life ; for difcerning bee-mafters now find that their
hives fhould not in the winter be expofed to the hot fun, becaufe
fuch unfeafonable warmth awakens the inhabitants too early from
their flumbers ; and, by putting their juices into motion too foon,
fubjects them afterwards to inconveniencies when rigorous weather
returns.
The coincidents attending this fhort but intenfe froft were, that
the horfes fell lick with an epidemic diftemper, which injured the
winds of many, and killed fome; that colds and coughs were
general .-.among the human fpecies; that it froze under people’s
beds for feveral nights; that meat was fo hard frozen that it could
not be fpitted, and could not be fecured but in cellars; that
feveral redwings and thrufhes were killed by the froft; and that
the large titmoufe. continued to pull ftraws lengthwife from the
eaves of thatched houfes and barns in a moft adroit manner, for a
purpofe that has been explained alreadyd.
On the 3d of January Benjamin Martin’s thermometer within
doors, in a clofe parlour where there was no fire, fell in the night
to 20, and on the 4th to 18, and on the 7th to a degree
of cold which the owner never fince faw in the fame fituation; and
he regret^, much that he was not able at that jundture to attend
his inftrument abroad. All this time the wind continued north
and north-eaft; and yet on the 8th rooft-cocks, which had
been filent, began to found their clarions, and crows to clamour,
as prognoftic of milder weather; and, moreover, moles began to
d See Letter xli. to Mr, Pennant,
p P heave
f ™