SHEUBS. 289 



and not unacceptable to persons that delight in planting 

 and ornamenting : and may particularly become a work that 

 professes never to lose sight of utility. 



For the last two or three days of the former year, there 

 were considerable falls of snow, which lay deep and uniform 

 on the ground without any drifting, wrapping up the more 

 humble vegetation in perfect security. From the first day 

 to the fifth of the new year-, more snow succeeded ; but, from 

 that day, the air became entirely clear, and the heat of the 

 sun about noon had a considerable influence in sheltered 

 situations. 



It was in such an aspect, that the snow on the author's 

 evergreens was melted every day, and frozen intensely every 

 night ;* so that the laurustines, bays, laurels, and arbutuses, 

 looked, in three or four days, as if they had been burnt in 

 the fire ; while a neighbour's plantation of the same kind, in 

 a high, cold situation, where the snow was never melted at 

 all, remained uninjured. 



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 behoves 

 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, peas-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 itself, than where the snow is partly melted and 

 frozen again. 



It may perhaps appear, at first, like a paradox ; but doubt- 

 less 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 



* This was the case a few years ago, when laurels, laurustines, &c., were 

 killed to the ground in the more sheltered situations, while those in bleak, 

 exposed situations escaped. Tender plants have more chance of surviving 

 frost when in cold spots, than when in those more sheltered. The sap is 

 kept back, and of course the plants are not so likely to be affected by the 

 frosts. ED. 



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