THE LATE WINTEE, 



THE LATE WINTER. 



BY AVILLTAM BACON, RICHMOND, MASS. 



Ai'RiL, 1857, will be remembered, in this section, as the month of snow. On 

 the 1st, we had a moderate fall ; on the Gth,and again on the 14th and 15th. But 

 the great storm of the season was on the 20th and 21st, when the bnrden borne 

 1»\' the evergreens bent them almost perpendicularly. Many old apple-trees were 

 broken down. 



A thaw commenced on the afternoon of the 21st, when the bnrden of snow on 

 branches of deciduous trees, and the south and west sides of evergreens, fell olf ; 

 yet, on the northeast side of trees exi)osed to the wind, a novel feature was pre- 

 sented on the morning of the 22d — tall columns of snow extending one-third 

 around their trunk, and terminating in a sharp edge to the northeast (frozen like 

 ice), and extending upward, following the taper of the trunk and leading branches, 

 sometimes to the height of forty feet. We measured one of these untimely ap- 

 ])endages at about four feet from the ground, and found the horizontal depth of 

 this columnar mass of snow encased in ice, to be ten inches, this always varying, 

 however, to the size of the tree. 



The actual quantity of snow on the ground, on the morning of the 22d, was 

 fifteen inches. When we take into account the amount of moisture on the sur- 

 face to help melt the snow, and the moist condition of the snow in falling, it is 

 but a fair estimate to suppose the quantity of snow that fell in this storm was 

 thirty inches, or two and one-half feet, which makes it decidedly the heaviest 

 storm ever known here at this season of the year. The thermometer, during the 

 Sturm, ranged, on the 20th, 32^ to 34° ; on the 21st, it rose to 38°, but fell at night 

 to 30°. The wind was northeast most of the time ; a stiff breeze, and, in the night, 

 very high. 



The winter has been marked by some intensely cold terms. In each of the 

 months (December, January, February, and March), the mercury was below zero. 

 The, coldest terra was in January, when the mercury was, in one instance, 23° below, 

 and remained below through the day. The next morning, noted 20° below zero ; 

 yet our peach and other fruit buds are apparently uninjured. The new wood of 

 last year's growth stands firm and good, thus giving new evidence that the descent 

 of the mercury to 17° below zero does not Mil buds. 



Our experience with mice, the last winter, has been to us truly novel. We had 

 apple-trees standing in grass land, and, within a few feet of them, trees standing 

 in stubble, stocked a year ago. These latter were effectually protected, as I sup- 

 ])0scd, by putting piles of thoroughly rotted manure around them, well elevated 

 at the trunk of the trees. When the frost came out this spring, we went to level 

 the manure, and were surprised and vexed to find several fatally girdled, the work 

 of destruction being carried from near the surface of the manure into the roots. 

 In two or three instances, we found mice nests in the manure, the material having 

 been brought from a distance. At one tree, we found the mischief-dealing popu- 

 lation, which we despatched with right good will. This experience brings us to 

 tl)e conclusion, that mounds of well-rotted manure do not fully protect, especially 

 when mice are very plenty or very hungry, or very much bent on mischief. Not 

 one of the trees on grass land was molested, though no protection was given. 



