1856.] Eff^cts of Frost on Dormant Vegetation. 289 



triuraph whatever shall resist, or through whatever agitations it may be 

 obliged to force its way. Talent-developed mind, united to industry and 

 skill, under the protecting aegis of our government and the smiles of 

 divine Providence, must go forth to gather the harvest of the earth. The 

 poverty of Europe will never be alleviated but by the exaltation of labor. 

 And vain will be the attempt to feed and satisfy their suffering millions 

 while oppressive governments still grind the people down, and their 

 doomed destiny and lot shall be ignorance, degradation, and neglect. 



Let it be ours to exalt those who toil for humanity and not titled sta- 

 tions, to dignify assiduous industry and not idle repose, to elevate not 

 the few but the many. And if our heraldry is in the hammer, the axe, 

 and the plow, let us feel it to be far higher honor than dragons, and 

 helmets, and skulls, and all the insignia of war. Let it be ours to give 

 to the farmer, the tiller of the soil, amid all his labors a well-furnished, 

 well-disciplined mind; ours to open for this purpose all over our land 

 the portals of science, to pluck the flowers which bedeck the field of lit- 

 erature, or garner stores from the mines of thought which he may there 

 explore ; that when he goes abroad he may go to bless mankind. Let 

 it be ours, in fine, to educate the whole man, physically, intellectually, 

 and morally. Then may we expect that " the earth will again bloom 

 as Eden, and the greatness of America shall know no limited zenith, and 

 fear no tendency to decline." 



THE EFFECTS OF FROST ON DOUM.VTST YEGF.T A.1 ION. - 



My article under the above caption, in the March No., has had the 

 effect, which, with you, I very much desired, namely, of calling out 

 others on the same subject. 



Mr. Kern's article is a good one, but it merely proves that plants can 

 be easily frozen, without bearing on the main point, namely : the effects 

 of frost on vegetation. He clearly corroborates me in the opinion, that 

 all trees, vines, etc., even in our climate, must be completely frozen 

 every winter. The interesting experiments and observations of Profs. 

 Naw and Schubler, and M. De Caudolle, as mentioned by him, prove be- 

 yond doubt, that " the tree is actually frozen when the temperature is 

 reduced a few degrees below freezing point," and that the " strange opin- 

 ion" that " freezing the fluids of the plant would most certainly prove 



" This ought to have appeared in the May No., but press of business prevented 

 me from having: it ready in time. 

 10 ^ 



