504 PROTECTION AGAINST FROST. 



viii. Wherever frosts are to be feared in forest nurseries, 

 the following rules should be observed : 



They should be situated on northerly or north-westerly 

 aspects. 



Seed should not be sown too early, say before the 1st 

 of May ; it should be well covered. 



In autumn, beds of seedlings may be covered with 

 brushwood, and seed-beds with dead leaves, moss, or 

 saw-dust. In spring, brushwood or shelter-mats may be 

 used. These latter may be placed on light wooden 

 supports and can then be removed and replaced at will. 

 Smoky fires may be kindled during the night, the 

 clouds of smoke preventing radiation from the ground. 

 This practice is extensively followed in French vineyards, 

 coal-tar, or small boxes filled with refuse resin, being 

 burned. 



Plants which are covered with rime may be watered with 

 cold water before sunrise so as to delay their thawing. 



Nurseries should be kept free of weeds.* 

 (ix.) Tender ornamental evergreen plants may be wrapped 

 up during winter in matting or straw, until they have grown 

 beyond the reach of frosts. The so-called hardening of trans- 

 plants which have been a few years in the ground is due to 

 the fact that their roots get gradually deeper into the soil, and 

 conduct the heat of the soil to the plants better than superficial 

 roots. Covering the base of transplants with cinder-dirt or 

 dead leaves also protects them from frost. 



All parts of plants, which in spite of these precautions have 

 been killed by frost, should be pruned, and frozen plants, such 

 as oak-saplings, which have collum-buds, may be cut back 

 level with the ground. Dead conifers and plants like beech* 

 which coppice badly, must be pulled up and the vacant spots 

 replanted with strong transplants. 



b. During the Tending of Woods. 



i. Prune all stems of their lower branches that stand over 

 young growth, both in high forest and coppice-with-standards, 



* Mr. W. Forbes states that in his nurseries, exposed to severe frost on the 

 27th May, 1899, the spots which carried most weeds experienced the 

 injury. 



