278 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
on such emergencies ; and, if his plantations are small, to avail 
himself of mats, cloths, peasehaum, 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 when 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 tliis 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 w^armth 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 wind 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 frozen 
so hard 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 
