from the EffeBs ofFrqfl. 311 



and even if it does freeze, its volume will not be enlarged 

 fo much as if it were thinner. M. Stromer made fome ex- 

 periments which feem to confirm the truth of this obferva- 

 tion. He plucked the leaves from a few tender branches of 

 a tree before the ufual time of their falling ; and the confe- 

 quence was, that the branches thus ftripped withftood a con- 

 siderable degree of frolt without fuftaining any injury, while 

 thofe which had not been deprived of their leaves artificially 

 were deftroyed. It is to be obferved, however, in regard to 

 this experiment, that all the leaves of the tree rauft not be 

 pulled at the fame time, but at three or four different periods 

 fome weeks diftant from each other, yet in fuch a manner 

 that the laft of the leaves be removed before the ufual time 

 of their falling. Were they all pulled oft* at the fame time, a 

 hidden ftoppage of the circulation of the fap would be oc- 

 cafioned, which would expofe the tree to flow but certain 

 deftruction f. 



* The following method of fecuring the bloflom of fruit-trees from 

 being damaged by early frofts, is mentioned in the Memoirs of the Royal 

 Society of Agriculture of Paris. A rope is to be interwove among the 

 branches of the tree, and one end of it brought down fo as to be immerfed 

 in a bucket of water. The rope, it is faid, will act as a conductor, and con- 

 vey the effe£b of the froft from the tree to the water. This idea is not new, 

 f^r the following paflage may be found in Colerus : " If you dig a trench 

 around the root of a tree, and fill it with water, or keep the roots moifl 

 till it has bloomed, it will not be injured by the froft. Or, in Spring, 

 fufpend a vcflel filled with water from the tree. If you wiih to preferve 

 the bloom from being hurt by the froft, place a veflel of water below it, 

 knd the froft will fall into it." See his Haujbucbc Wittenberg, j6o8, 410. 

 vol. ii. p. 151 ; or the folio edit, of Franckfort, 1680, book vi. chap. \i t 

 p. 203. Euir. 



X 4 INTEL- 



