F R E 
F R E 
plants will come up and thrive ; and in' thefe hedges 
the trees frequently are permitted to grow till they have 
deftroyed the hedge, for there is fcarce any tree fo 
hurtful to all kinds of vegetables as the Aih, which 
robs every plant of its nourilhment within the reach 
of its roots, therefore fhould never be buffered to grow 
in hedge rows •, for they not only kill the hedge, but 
impoverish Corn, or what foe ver is fown near them. Nor 
fiiould Aih-trees be permitted to grow near p allure 
grounds, for if any of the cows eat of the leaves or 
ihoots of the Aih, all the butter which is made of their 
milk will be rank and of no value •, which is always 
the quality of the butter which is made about Guild- 
ford, Godalmin, and feme other parts of Surry, where 
there are Afh-trees growing about all their pafcures, 
fo that it is very rare to meet with any batter in thofe 
places which is fit to eat •, but in all the good dairy 
countries, they never fuffer an Afii-tree to grow. 
If a wood of thefe trees is rightly managed, it will 
turn greatly to the advantage of its owner •, for by 
the under- wood, which will be fit to cut every feven 
or eight years, for poles or hoops, there will be a 
continual income more than fufficient to pay the rent 
of the ground, and all other charges •, and frill there 
will be a flock preferved for timber, which in a few 
years will be worth forty or fifty {hillings per tree. 
This timber is of excellent ufe to the wheelwright 
and cartwright, for ploughs, axle-trees, wheel-rings, 
harrows, bulls, oars, blocks for puilies, and many 
other purpofes. 
The bell feafon for felling of thefe trees is from 
November to February •, for if it be done either too 
early in autumg, or too late in the fpring, the;imber 
will be fubjeft to be infelled with worms, and other 
infefts j but for lopping pollards, the fpring is pre- 
ferable for all foft woods. 
FREEZING is the fixing of a fluid, or the de- 
priving it of its natural mobility by the aftion of cold ; 
or it is the aft of converting a fluid fubftance into a 
firm, coherent, rigid one, called ice. 
The principal phenomena of freezing are, 
iff. That Water being dilated or rarefied, and all 
fluids, oil excepted, i. e. in freezing, take up more 
fpace, and are fpecifically lighter than they were before. 
That the bulk and dimenfions of water are increafed 
by freezing, is found by many experiments, and it 
may not be improper here to take notice of the pro- 
cefs of nature. 
A glafs veffel then, I A, full of water 
immerged in a veffel of water mixed 
with fait GHKL, the water prefently 
rifes from D to C; which feems owing 
to the fudden conftriction of the veffel, 
haftily plunged into fo cold a medium : 
foon after, from the point C, it con- 
tinually defcends condeniing, till it ar- 
rives at the point F ; where, for fome 
time, it feems to remain at reft : but 
it foon recovers itfelf, and begins to ex- 
pand, riling from F to E, and from 
thence loon after, by one violent leap, flf} 
mounts to B ; and here the water in I fi /f 
is immediately feen all thick and cloudy, fj 
and, in the very inftant of this leap, is ;1 
converted into ice. Add, that while the ■ 
to A, 
1 G 
being 
A 
B 
D 
F 
H 
jijil 
K 
J !ji ill! 
ice is growing harder, and fome of the water near the 
neck of the veffel I is freezing, the flux of the wa- 
ter is continued above B towards A, and at length 
runs out at the veffel. 
2dly, That they lofe not only of the fpecific, but 
alfo of their abfolute gravity, by freezing ; fo that 
when they are thawed again, they are found confider- 
ably lighter than before. 
3dly, That frozen water is not quite fo tranfparent 
as when it was liquid, and that bodies do not perfpire 
fo freely through it. i 
qthly, That water, when frozen, evaporates almoft 
as much as when fluid. 
5thly, That water does not freeze in vacuo, but re- 
quires the prefence and contiguity of air. 
6thiy, That water which has been boiled, does not 
freeze fo readily as that which has not. 
ythly, That water, being covered over with a fur- 
face of oil of Olives, does not freeze lb readily as it 
does without it ; and that nut oil abfolutely preferves 
it under a ftrong froft, when Olive oil will not. 
8thly, That fpint of wine, nut oil, and oil of turpen- 
tine, do not freeze at all. 
9th ly, That the fur face of the water, in freezing, 
appears all wrinkled , the 1 wrinkles being fometimes 
in parallel lines, and fometimes like rays proceeding 
from a center to the circumference. 
The theories of freezing, or the method of account- 
ing for thefe phenomena, are very many. 
The chief principles that different authors have gone 
upon, are, either that fome foreign matter is intro- 
duced within the pores of the fluid, by means of 
which it is fixed, its bulk increafed, &c. 
Or that fome matter which was naturally contained 
in the fluid is now expelled, by reafon of the abfence 
of which, the body becomes fixed. 
Or that there is fome alteration produced in the tex- 
ture or form, either of the particles of the fluid itfelf, 
or of fomething that is contained within it. 
To fome one of thefe principles all the fyftems of 
freezing are reducible. 
The Cartefians explicate freezing by the recefs or 
going out of the ethereal matter from the pores of the 
water, or other liquor •, which being once done, the 
finer parts are too fmall and flexible to keep the long, 
(lender, and eel-like particles of water fluent, or in 
the form of a liquor. 
But the Corpufcularians, or Gaffendifts, afcribe the 
freezing of water, with more probability, to the in- 
grefs of multitudes of cold or frigorific particles, as 
they call them ; which, entering the liquor in fwarms, 
and difperfing themfelves every way through it, croud 
into the pores of the water, and hinder the wonted 
agitation of its parts, and wedge it up, as it were, 
into the hard or confiftent body of ice ; and from 
hence proceeds its increafe of dimenfions, coldnefs, 
&c. 
That ice is fpecifically lighter than the water out of 
which it is by freezing made, is certain by its fwi na- 
ming in it ; and that this lightnefs of ice proceeds 
from thofe numerous bubbles which are produced in 
it by its congelation, is equally plain ; but how thofe 
bubbles come to be generated in freezing, and what 
fubftance they contain in them, if they are not quite 
empty, is an inquiry of great importance ; and, per- 
haps, if difcovered, may contribute much to the un- 
derftanding the nature of cold. 
Mr. Hobbes will have it common air, which, in- 
truding into the water in congelation, entangles itfelf 
with the particles of the fluid, prevents their motion, 
and produces thofe numerous bubbles, thus expanding 
its bulk, and rendering it fpecifically lighter. 
But, in anfwer to this, no fuch ingrefs of air into 
water appears in its coagulation ; and that it does not 
get into frozen oil is plain, becaufe that body is con- 
denfed by being frozen. 
And Mr. Boyle has alfo (hewn, by undoubted ex- 
periments, that water will freeze in veffels hermeti- 
cally fealed •, and in brafs bodies or veffels clofely 
flopped, and into which the air can have no ingrefs, 
hath yet been turned into ice, abounding with thefe 
bubbles as numerous as thole frozen in the open air. 
Ele alfo has proved by experiment, that water kept 
a while in the exhaufted receiver, till all its bubbles 
were emerged and gone, being afterwards turned into 
ice by a freezing mixture, the ice had fcarce any 
bubbles in it •, whence it is plain, that thefe bubbles 
are filled with fome matter which is within the water, 
if they are filled with any thing. But he proves alfo, 
by plain experiments, that they have none, or ex- 
ceedingly little, true elaftic air contained in them. 
Others, and thofe of the greatefl number, are of 
opinion, that the freezing matter is a fait •, and they 
argue that an excels of cold will render water torpid, 
but never congeal it without fait : they fay that thofe 
5 S particles 
