FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 113 



Another benefit derived from freezing is, that it serves 

 to restore all soils to a due state of sensibility to the opera- 

 tion of heat. 



Heat is the stimulant of soils; but, as is the case with all 

 stimulants, the longer it is applied without intermission, the 

 less powerful it becomes; particularly in the production 

 of grasses and other plams* which are natural to northern 

 climates. Thus, a degree of heat which in the Fall will 

 not be found sufficient to make those plants grow, will 

 make them grow rapidly, when applied to them in the 

 Spring. In this respect, therefore, freezing, which is only 

 the absence of heat, serves as a kind of restorative to the 

 soil, and refits it for the production of those plants. Thus 

 freezing is a fertilizer of stiff soils, and a restorer of all, by- 

 renewing their sensibility to the effects of heat. 



When plants have been frostbiten, while growing, they 

 may be restored by sprinkling them plentifully, while in the 

 frozen state, with brine, or with water containing a solution 

 of sal-ammoniac, which is better. 



FRUIT-TREES. Mr, Forty th 9 * essay on these has been 

 justly esteemed, for its originality and research. It is, how- 

 ever, a production best calculated for the Country where it 

 was writen ; and even there, perhaps, some parts of it may 

 be found more pleasant in theory than profitable in practice. 

 His composition for curing defects in trees, and restoring 

 old decayed ones, and the method of preparing it, shall be 

 first noticed, and is as follows : 



Take a bushel of fresh cowdung, half a bushel of lime- 

 rubbish from the ceilings of old rooms, which is besj: (or/ 

 pounded chalk, or old slaked lime, will answer) Half a 

 bushel of wood ashes, and a sixteenth of river sand ; sift the 

 three last articles fine, before they are mixed ; work them 

 well together by beating, &c. so as completely to mix them: 

 Then reduce the mass to the consistence of thick pamr, by 

 mixing with it a sufficient quantity of urine and soapsuds, 

 so that it can be used with a brush. A good coat of this is 

 to be applied to the naked wood, where a limb is cut off, or 

 the wood otherwise laid bare, and the powder of wood-ashes 

 and burnt-bones is to be sprinkled over this, and gently 

 pressed down with the hand. When any of the composition 

 is left for future use, it is to be covered with urine, to pre- 

 serve it from the atmosphere, which injures it. 



With this composition, Mr. Forsytti restores old roten 

 decayed trees to a flourishing .state. In order to do this, 

 all the roten and dead part of the tree is first cut away and 

 scooped out, quite down into the roots, till you come to the 

 live wood, and then smoothed, and the edges next the live 

 bark rounded off. Then the composition is laid on with a 



15 



