THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



153 



crop will be a short one, except where 

 the trees are protected by the over- 

 han»inf limbs of other varieties ; the 

 leaf of the butternut is not a quarter 

 grown, beaclies and maples also show 

 signs of the frost, but not in so marked 

 a degi-ee. The Russian and English 

 Mulberry whose leaves were just open- 

 ing are badly nipped. Strange to say, 

 the apple trees just coming into bloom 

 and the plums whose blossoms had fallen, 

 do not appear to have materially suffer- 

 ed. Peas as ^ rule are a hardy crop, 

 and all appear to have stood very well 

 except Arnolds hybrid known as Bliss's 

 " American Wonder " which has come 

 very badly out of the conflict. 



Clover and gi'owing cereals are report- 

 ed to me as damaged, but I noticed 

 little of this on my way thi'ough the 

 country, and presume the injury siis- 

 tained'was on low land. Potatoes will 

 of course come on again, but those un- | 

 pi'otected will not yield so early a crop 

 as was expected. The most singular 

 incident of the cold term is reported to 

 me by a gentleman who lives near this 

 city, "he states that he has picked up 

 five humming birds which Avere killed 

 by the frost. These beautiful little 

 strangers have been %asiting the spring 

 flowers for the past ten days. 



All attempts on my part to discover 

 the course of the frost waves, or why a 

 tree or a plant of the same variety was 

 killed in close proximity to another, has 

 proved aboi'tive. 



It is believed when accounts from 

 other localities come to hand it will be 

 found the Ottawa district will have 

 sufiered less than places further west 

 and south. This is the first spring frost 

 of any consequence which has visited 

 this section during the i)ast seventeen 

 years. 



P. E. BUCKE, 



Vice-Pres. F. G. Ass. of Ont. 

 Ottawa, 2nd June, 1884. 



LESSONS OF THE FROST OF MAY 

 29th, 1884. 

 This frost was forming for three days 

 and fell at length with unusual severity 

 at a period after heat when vegetation 

 was in an unusual state of forwardness 

 and beauty. Most of the fruits were 

 badly injured, and the young growth 

 cut, and the tender leaves of even 

 forest trees and others totally destroyed, 

 and this over a very large extent of 

 country, from the Far West to New 

 York in the east. The damages to our 

 crops may be estimated by millions. 

 Here we would say, by way of apology, 

 that we do not at all times love to 

 dwell upon our losses for popular topics 

 or to float our failures before the world 

 for examples, but still in some in- 

 stances, it may be well to look fairly 

 and squarely at them and ask ourselves 

 instructive and suggestive questions in 

 order to learn of usefulness and possibly 

 remedy. In this case, as in most others 

 of this class, there are a few leading 

 ideas that may be taken as texts from 

 which to arrive at progressive lessons of 

 value in the future. And although one 

 cannot with exact precision tell why it 

 is that our otherwise delightful and pre- 

 possessing country should be so subject 

 to such destructive influences as these 

 are, and to spread disappointment and 

 death over so vast and beautiful fields 

 and orchards just at a period of the 

 greatest possible promise of fruitfulness, 

 and when vegetation is making such 

 astonishing developments of young and 

 rampant growth, yet we can under- 

 stand some things that in our circum- 

 stances may contribute to the subtlety 

 of the influences and the fatality of 

 the visitations. We know not the dis- 

 tant chambers of the north, where lie 

 the winds concealed or their power to 

 break forth just at this particular sea- 

 son when we might least expect them, 

 but we do know that they come. Per- 

 haps these influences have always ex- 



