300 NATURAL HISTORY 
rather than the severity of the cold. Therefore it highly 
behoves every planter, who wishes to escape the cruel morti- 
fication 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, 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 doubt- 
less the more tender trees and shrubs should never be 
planted in hot aspects ; not only for the reason assigned 
above, bat also, because thus circumstanced, they are dis- 
posed 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 
inconvenience 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 car- 
ried 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 
