390 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the Avind, than by one absolutely close. The ivy is not unfrequently smothered 

 by the compact straw-matting which is put to its shelter with a damairini^ excess 

 of care. Tlie wattled branches of In- or pine make safer protection, and a very 

 easy and good shelter for rhododendrons is made by simply thrusting into the 

 earth around them and among them, well-developed branches of cedar or of 

 firs. The same device is capital for the i)rotection of newly planted evergreens, 

 which, by reason of their recent transfer and strange situation, may not be able 

 to cope with the storms of the first winter. A tender vine, too, upon a north 

 wall, — whether the vine be deciduous or evergreen, — will profit greatly by such 

 shelter as we suggest. So will the beds of sage, or thyme, which used always 

 to have place in every farmer's garden. 



Below the latitude of 38°, or thereabouts it is quite possible to protect the 

 lettuce plants of the Inirdier kinds in this way, if good exposure be chosen, and 

 proper attention be ])aid to the efliciency of the shelter. An out-lying trench of 

 celery may often be kept in best possible condition up to January by a well- 

 arranged shelter of leaves and pine boughs. A farmers cellar, which may be 

 subjected to frostiness in extreme weather, may be safely protected by pinning 

 down two or three close layers of jiinc or hemlock branches upon the exposed 

 sides. This, too, has a far neater appearance than banks of strawy manure, 

 and is far less likely to be disturbed by investigating |)oultry. 



Of course, what we say about this use of evergreen boughs will not greatly 

 advantage those who have no such wood growth at command. But the cedar 

 and pme and hemlock, have a pretty general cstablisliment over the northeast- 

 ern and middle States, and the uses suggested may stimulate still further the 

 disposition on the prairies of the west, for belt-planting of evergreens. In 

 botli ways they are admirable M'armth-keopers. Nature gives a long "shag" 

 to the coat of the polar bear. AVe do not make so much account as we might 

 of the vegetable "shag" of the evergreens, whether in belts or in boughs. — 

 K. Y. Tribune. 



THE COLD WAVE OF THE WINTER OF 1874-5 AND ITS LESSONS. 



The wholesale destruction of fruit trees and the mutilation of grape vines 

 during the winter of 1874-5, are less of a mystery than the extreme and 

 prolonged cold weather that was the main cause of these disaster.-^. The over- 

 bearing of fruit trees, in 1874, with tlie drouglit of autumn, had an etfect to 

 weaken them and make them more susceptible to extremes of temperature; but 

 the main cause of this arboreal mortality, so far as the States of Wisconsin and 

 Michigan and the northern parts of Illinois, Ohio and Indiana are concerned, 

 was the extreme cold. Usually, steamboats, except when ice-bound in port, 

 pass during winter from Grand ilaven to Milwaukee, and seldom or never meet; 

 with any obstruction outside of their harbors ; but during the period mentioned, 

 no open sea was known throughout the whole width of tlie lake;^, and the 

 supposition is that, for the lirst time iu the history of its navigation, J^ake 

 Michigan was entirely frozen over after Feb. 9, 1875. 



It had been claimed before, that tliu surface of the lake, except along its 

 shore, never got below 4U° above zero, and to the existence of this open sea to 

 the west of tlie eastern sliore, we have ever considered ourselves indebted for 

 this so-called "Peach Belt," extending north and south inclusively, from Grand 



