2 EFFECT OF SEVERE FROST ON THE 
Fortunately however in the growth of the most 
useful of our fruits and vegetables the gardener 
has comparatively little to fear from the severi- 
ties of winter; it is when sharp frosts succeed 
mild and open weather in the spring, that he 
suffers most; and as these not unfrequently oc- 
cur in this part of England, it may be useful to 
record such observations as may instruct us to 
guard against them. 
A person residing in the country and fondly 
attached to the pursuits of rural life will, no 
doubt, be apt to overrate the value of his remarks, 
but if they appear to have the remotest tendency 
to advance the physiology of vegetation, and es- 
pecially of any of those more essential produc- 
tions of our orchards or gardens which add so 
much to our support and comfort, there is no 
danger of their being uncourteously received by 
this society. 
We are well aware how much the slow or rapid 
erowth of vegetables depends upon temperature, 
and a proper degree of moisture in the air and 
eround; but we know comparatively little of the 
manner in which they appropriate to themselves 
the different kinds of nourishment which they 
receive from the air and the earth, decreed to 
