NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 22/ 



losing in a few days the labor and hopes of years, to bestir 

 himself on such emergencies ; and if his plantations are small, 

 to avail himself of mats, cloths, pease-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 doubtless 

 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 to shoot earlier 

 in the spring, and to grow on later in the autumn than they 

 would otherwise do, and so are sufferers by lagging or early 

 frosts. For this reason also plants from Siberia will hardly 

 endure our climate; because, on the very first advances of 

 spring, they shoot away, and so are cut off by the severe nights 

 of March or April. 



Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the same incon- 

 venience with respect to the more tender shrubs from North 

 America, which they therefore plant under north walls. There 

 should also perhaps be a wall to the east to defend them from 

 the piercing blasts from that quarter. 



This observation might without any impropriety be carried 

 into animal life ; for discerning bee-masters now find that their 

 hives should not in the winter be exposed to the hot sun, 

 because such unseasonable warmth awakens the inhabitants 

 too early from their slumbers ; and, by putting their juices into 

 motion too soon, subjects them afterwards to inconveniences 

 when rigorous weather returns. 



The coincidents attending this short but intense frost were, 

 that the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, which 

 injured the winds of many, and killed some ; that colds and 

 coughs were general among the human species ; that it froze 

 under people's beds for several nights ; that meat was so hard 

 frozen that it could not be spitted, and could not be secured 

 but in cellars ; that several redwings and thrushes were killed 

 by the frost ; and that the large titmouse continued to pull 

 straws lengthwise from the eaves of thatched houses and barns 



