OF SELBORNE. 317 
From hence I would infer that it is the repeated 
melting and freezing of the snow that is so fatal to 
vegetation, rather than the severity of the cold. 
Therefore it highly behooves every planter, who 
wishes to escape the cruel mortification of losing in 
a few days the labour and hopes of years, to bestir 
himself on such emergencies, and, if his plantations 
are small, to avail himself of mats, cloths, pease- 
haum, straw, reeds, or any such covering for a 
short time; or, if his shrubberies are extensive, to 
see that his people go about with prongs and forks, 
and carefully dislodge the snow from the boughs, 
since the naked foliage will shift much better for it- 
self than where the snow is partly melted and 
frozen again. 
It may perhaps appear at first like a paradox, 
but doubtless the more tender trees and shrubs 
should never be planted in hot aspects, not only for 
the reason assigned above, but also because, thus 
circumstanced, they are disposed to shoot earlier 
in the spring, and to grow on later in the autumn, 
than they would otherwise do, and so are sufferers 
by lagging or early frosts: For this reason, also, 
plants from Siberia will hardly endure our climate, 
because, on the very first advances of spring, they 
shoot away, and so are cut off by the severe nights 
of March or April. 
Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the 
same inconvenience with respect to the more tender 
shrubs from North America, which they therefore 
plant under north walls. There should also, per- 
haps, be a wall to the east, to defend them from the 
piercing blasts from that quarter. 
This observation might, without any impropriety, 
Dp 2 
