166 
ORCHARDS. 
It is altogether most difficult to say what sites 
are the most desirable as localities for orchards , for 
though low spots, viz, combes andvallies possess, the 
advantage of offering shelter from unfriendly blasts, 
it is to be feared that insect life coming under the 
denomination of “ blight ,” has in such spots greater 
opportunities for development, and as we have just 
seen, they have the very great disadvantage of 
accumulating detrimental moisture at the juncture 
when frosts are to be apprehended. On the whole 
however, the qualification of shelter being duly 
appreciated, vales and combes removed sufficiently 
from the tyranny of sea winds may rationally be 
preferred for the culture of a tree the fruit of which 
yields so genial a beverage to our husbandmen. 
On May 15th of the same year as above spoken 
of, a fall of snow took place on Dartmoor, and in the 
town and vicinity of Plymouth great cold accompa¬ 
nied by a descent of sleet was experienced. But 
this solitary case of very late frost and cold is not 
to be regarded as unusual; on the contrary, such 
instances are far from uncommon, and thus the Poet 
in allusion to the disappointed hopes of this 
season, says 
u To day lie puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms 
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him : 
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost !” 
The sudden depressions of heat in the nights of 
June not unfrequently prove fatal to kidney-beans, 
and some other plants particularly susceptible to this 
species of impression, but whilst allowance may 
be made for great delicacy in such cases, they 
tend to shew' the disadvantages under which many 
forms of vegetable life labour in a climate so prone 
as ours to transitions of atmospheric temperature 
and insidious change. 
