456 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 
March 17. 
temperature, to the gradual fall at night in the cold- 
water pit, all of whicli cannot bo so well managed by 
hot-water pipes.” W. H. 0. 
COYENT GAEHEN. 
Although the weather has been more open during 
the past week, still the effects of the late frosts have 
been such as to influence the supplies of vegetables to 
a considerable extent. This always is a scarce time, 
but when we have such severe visitations of hard 
weather as wo have had, and particularly after such 
mild weather as has existed during the whole of the 
winter, all market-garden produce conies in very short, 
and not of the best quality. Prices are still high, quite 
as much so as they have been for the last fortnight. 
Eruit of all kinds is very scarce; indeed, even Ajtples 
are almost as short as w'O reported Pears to have been 
all the winter. 
Of the forced culinary articles there is a good supply— 
such as Rliuharh, Sea-lcaJe, aud Asparagus. There are 
also several lots of new Potatoes, aud a few new Carrots. 
Old Potatoes of the best quality, such as Regents, make 
as much as T’B a ton, while the inferior and foreign 
sorts may be had from £4 to £C. The supply of Cornish 
Brocoli still continues, but they with difficulty make 
more than 2s. a dozen. 
Cut Flowers and Plants are very plentiful; they con¬ 
sist of Heaths, Tulips, Hgaelnths, Qeraniums, Roses, 
Epacris, Primulas, Violets, and Camellias. —IT. 
GOSSIP AND GLEANINGS. 
In some parts of Ireland vegetation has suffered more 
from the late frosts than it has in England, aud this 
has arisen from the absence of snow in Ireland. A 
clergyman near Cloyne, wultes to us, that the consequent 
injury is very great iu the flower-gardens, “ so many 
things were iu advance, from the previous mildness of 
the weather. For twenty years, I am told, there has not 
hcen such a frost in this neighbourhood. We have had 
scarcely any snow, so that even many of the Wall¬ 
flowers appear gone.” This leads us to remark, in 
. answer to another correspondent (C. F.), that there is 
I no doubt that snow keeps the plants beneath it warm 
during very severe frost. Snow is a very bad con¬ 
ductor of heat, aud the cold above its surface must be 
very severe before, at an inch beneath that surface, the 
thermometer sinks below 32°. The following experi¬ 
ments, published by M. Eoussinghault, illustrate this 
fact:— 
“ In the month of Febrnar}', Itill, I made some experi- 
meats, which show that the snow which covers the ground 
acts in the manner of a screen. I liad first a thermometer 
upon the snow, the bulb of the instrument being covered, 
by from 0.078 to 0.117 of an inch of snow in powder; second, 
n thermometer, the bulb of which was situated completely 
under the layer of snow in contact with the ground ; tliird, 
a thermometer in the open air, at about 37 or 38 feet above 
the surface, on the north of a building. The layer of snow 
was about four inches in thickne.ss, and had covered a field 
sown with wheat for a month. The sun shono brightly upon 
the field on those days when my experiments were made. 
“ Feb. 11. Five o’clock in the evening; the sun has been 
hidden by the mountains for half an hour; the sky is un¬ 
clouded, the air very calm : thermometer under the snow, 
32° F.; thermometer upon the snow, 20° F.; thermometer 
in the air, 30.3° F. 
“Feb. 12. The night very fine, no clouds, the air calm. 
At seven o’clock in the- morning the sun is not yet upon the 
field : thermometer under the snow, 20.2° F.; thermometer 
upon the snow, 10° F.; thermometer in the air, 20.3° F. 
“At half-past five in the evening, the sun behind the 
mountains ; thermometer under the snow, 32° F.; thermo¬ 
meter -’upon the snow, 29° F.; thermometer in the air, 
37..0° F. 
“ Feb. 13. At seven in the morning ; the sky grey, the 
air slightly in motion : thermometer under the snow, 28° F.; 
thermometer upon the snow, 17° F.; thermometer in the 
air, 25° F. 
“At half-past five in the evening; the air calm, the sky 
cloudless, the sun already concealed for some time: ther¬ 
mometer under the snow, 32° F.; thermometer upon the 
snow, 30° F.; thermometer in the air, 40° F. 
“Feb. 14. Seven in the morning, wind \Y., a fine rain 
falling : thermometer under the sno\v, 32° F.; thermometer 
upon the snow, 32° F.; thermometer in the air, 35.7° F. 
“ When we reflect upon the losses occasioned to farmers 
and market gardeners by frosts that are entirely due to 
nocturnal radiation at seasons of the year when vegetation 
has already made considerable progress, we ask anxiously if 
there be no possible means of guai'ding against them. I 
shall here make know'n a method suggested and successfully 
followed by South American agriculturists with this view. 
The natives of the upper country in Peru, who inhabit the 
elevated plains of Cusco, are perhaps more than any oUier 
people accustomed to see their harvest destroyed by the 
effects of nocturnal radiation. The Incas appear to have 
ascertained the conditions under which frost during the 
night was most to be apprehended. Tiiey had observed 
that it only froze when the night was clear and the air 
I calm : knowing consequently that the presence of clouds 
prevented frost, they contrived to make as it were artificial 
clouds to preserve their fields against the cold. When the 
■ evening led them to apprehend a frost, that is to say, when 
, the stars shone with brilliancy, and the air was still, the 
I Indians set fire to a heap of wet straw or dung, and by this 
I means raised a cloud of smoke, and so destroyed the trans¬ 
parency of the atmosphere from which they had so much 
! to apprehend. It is easy, in fact, to conceive that the 
transparency of the air can readily be destroyed by raising a 
; smoke in calm weather; it would be otherwise were there 
I any wind stirring; but then the precaution itself becomes 
1 unnecessary, for with air in motion, with a breeze blowing, 
I there is no reason to apprehend frost from nocturnal 
radiation. 
“ The practice followed by the Indians, just described, is 
I mentioned by the Inca Garoillaso de la A'ega, in his Royal 
j Commentaries of Peru. Garcillaso, iu the imperial city of 
1 Gusca, and in his youth, had frequently seen the Indians 
j raise a smoke to preserve the fields of maize from the frost.” 
1 Messrs. Nutt, the well-known breeders and judges of 
I poultry, being about to leave York for London, have \ 
I recently sold their collection by private treaty. Their 
! small, but splendid stock of Cochins, have been j)ur. | 
I chased, principally, by the fanciers in the neighbour¬ 
hood, at an average of nearly £7 each ; we believe a 
higher average than any public sale has yet realised. 
They are nearly all the produce of two birds of the 
pure Sturgeon blood, and are amongst the finest speci¬ 
mens that gentleman has produced. The cock, which 
now weighs over 12 lbs., aud is remarkable for his 
symmetry aud great characteristics of breed, is, together 
with some of the younger birds, iu the possession of 
E. Bond, Esq., of Leeds. Amongst the purchasers we 
may mention — Smyth, Esq., of Skelton, near York; 
W. D. T. Dimsbury, Esq., of Skelton; J. Swann, Esq., 
