THE 



GARDENER. 



APRIL 1879. 



THE LATE SEVERE WINTER AND A FEW 

 OF ITS LESSONS. 



HE past winter, and some of the lessons it has been calcu- 

 lated to teach horticulturists, will long be remembered. 

 In some districts, and probably in the south-west of Scot- 

 land in particular, there is no record of cold so protracted 

 and severe. For the sixty-two days of December and 

 January there were 11° of frost for each clay, and, including February, 

 there were 9° frost for each of the ninety days of the three months ; 

 and while we write — 11th March — the frost is not yet out of the 

 ground. 



Some writers have been reckoning up the injury done to vegetation 

 by the very long period of low temperature, but we consider it even 

 yet too soon to arrive at a correct estimate, vegetation being unusually 

 late, and, until the sap begins to rise more freely under the influence 

 of more sun, the results cannot be wholly visible. Common vege- 

 tables have suffered , to an extent that we have not witnessed or 

 heard of in forty years' experience. AVe have seldom seen Eoses so 

 severely injured, notwithstanding the fine ripening effects of the last 

 warm summer and autumn. Although the time has not yet arrived 

 to determine it, we have a suspicion that Pear-buds are very consider- 

 ably crippled; but as the full extent of the injury done to outdoor 

 vegetation cannot yet be correctly estimated, we will turn to another 

 department of horticulture, in connection with which some very for- 

 cible lessons have been given by such a winter. 



M 



