NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



3G5 



straw ? In summer, every crop, such as gooseber- 

 ries, currants, and many other things, should 

 have the protection of straw, which keeps the sun 

 from drying up the surface, and the surface roots 

 damp and cool, while all weeds are kept down. 

 Market gardeners use it for their frames — it mat- 

 ters not whether for cucumbers, melons, or pota- 

 toes, straw is their covering — and their crops arc 

 more secure than when protected by a thin mat. 

 But some may object to the use of straw, on ac- 

 count of the litter it makes in a garden ; but if 

 any of those who object to its use for this reason, 

 will just take a peep into Coyent Garden market 

 at any season, they cannot fail to be struck with 

 the quality of the produce, in the raising of which 

 straw plays an important part. Straw is also the 

 best of all manures for a strong retentive soil, when 

 it is dug in fresh, as it decays and leaves innumer- 

 able worm-like holes, which act as drains for the 

 roots . — Gardener's Chronicle. 



EFFECTS OF THE LATE SEVERE WIN- 

 TER UPON VEGETATION. 



Reports from various parts of the country estab- 

 lish the fact that the severe cold of the late winter 

 has proved destructive to many fruit trees and 

 plants. When we say the severe cold, we do not 

 mean to declare that it was the intensity of the 

 cold in itself that has proved so fatal, for that we 

 do not pretend to know. The question still re- 

 mains an open one, and demands the careful in- 

 vestigation of those best able to settle it. 



7s it the intensity of cold that has killed the 

 trees and plants 1 



It is said that the tree becomes frozen so hard 

 that the sap vessels are burst, and that causes its 

 death. There are not many winters in New Eng- 

 land so mild but that the trees are all frozen so 

 solid that logs from them may be split almost by 

 a single blow of an axe from an athletic arm. But 

 this does not seem to have been a sufficient con- 

 densation of cold to injure trees, or we should 

 have lost them all. If they could not withstand 

 this degree of freezing, they would soon become 

 extinct. They not only withstand the lowest tem- 

 perature that occurs in this latitude, say from six- 

 teen to twenty degrees below zero, as the lowest 

 point, but in the neighborhood of the arctic regions 

 they live and grow to an enormous size. 



Sir John Franklin (whose sad fate is universally 

 lamented) in his overland expedition to those re- 

 gions, between the years 1823 and 1827, wintered 

 where the strongest brandy froze solid in a few 

 minutes upon exposure, and the ink with which 

 he was writing frequently froze upon his pen, al- 

 though using it immediately before a huge fire of 

 logs : — and yet in a climate giving this intense, 

 long-protracted and appalling cold, he gives an 

 account of trees growing there whose circumference 

 is larger than any we have ever heard of elsewhere. 

 These trees, according to his statement, attain a 

 height of from 150 to upwards of 250 feet, varying 



from twenty to nearly sixty feet in circumference ; 



thus far exceeding 



"The tallest pine 

 Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast 

 Of some great amorinl." 



So it would seem that trees are not only able to 

 bear this extreme condensation of cold, but to bear 

 it through a long-protracted season of intense and 

 unmitigated severity — coming out and growing 

 freely through a great many years, and reaching 

 a magnitude unparalleled in warmer climates. 



That these trees were indigenous and suited to 

 the climate, would not seem to argue anything in 

 favor of such hardihood and immense growth, any 

 more than that our trees and plants, being indige- 

 nous, should possess the same power to resist the 

 effects of cold. Beside, in nearly all our winters, 

 the degree of cold for a short period is as great as 

 it was at any time during the last one. Winter 

 before the last the mercury fell as low in this re- 

 gion (being about eighteen degrees below zero,) as 

 it did last winter, but without any injurious effect 

 upon the trees and plants. 



We are, therefore, led to believe that it is not 

 the intensity of the cold that has caused the de- 

 struction daily witnessed among the tress and 

 plants. 



To what, then, may he imputed such wide-spread 

 injury to the trees? 



Can it be excessive evaporation in early spring? 

 Many trees are now dead whose branches were 

 full of sap and plump on the first of April, show- 

 ing no indications whatever of the speedy death 

 which awaited them, with the exception that blos- 

 som buds were found to have lost their vitality. 

 Griffiths, in his Chemistry of the Seasons, says that 

 plants are frequently "blighted" during early 

 spring by dry winds, for when branches and leaves 

 are first put forth, they are extremely succulent, 

 and part with water so readily that during a dry 

 easterly wind this loss by evaporation cannot be 

 rapidly compensated for, by the capillary attrac- 

 tion of the roots. If such were the cause of the 

 injury it should prove so annually, for fierce winds 

 prevail throughout New England, for more than 

 half the time during the entire spring months. If 

 not to excessive evaporation, may the injury be at- 

 tributed to the great and sudden changes which 

 occur both in the autumn and spring 1 



Of late years the autumn weather has been mild 

 and moist, and favorable to the growth of plants 

 until a late period. The wood made during this 

 time did not get perfected, and the result has been 

 that this growth is found dead in the spring on 

 the quince, peach, apple and plum trees. 



Does this late growth affect the general condi- 

 tion and health of other portions of the tree, or is 

 there any probability that it has in any way been 

 accessory to its death 1 



Changes of temperature in the spring, are some- 



