38 
PROTECTION OF PLANTS FROM FROST. 
the approaching winter. Up till this time they should be allowed 
a southern aspect, so as to receive all the sunshine that may 
occur; but as soon as November commences, I have them re¬ 
moved to the foot of a north wall, where a thick layer of ashes 
has been prepared for them to stand on; and here they remain 
through the severest weather, without protection or interference, 
except that in the case of a heavy fall of snow, or long continued 
rain, they are laid down on the sides of the pots, lest the snow 
should crush them, or the soil become sodden from the excessive 
wet. In the spring they are turned into their places, in the ordi¬ 
nary time and manner, and in ordinary seasons are not a week 
behind the most tenderly nursed crops in the neighbourhood. 
I account for the success of this system on the principle that 
it is the frequent partial excitement experienced by the plants in 
frames, in consequence of being closely shut up with a raised 
temperature about them, whenever it is thought necessary to ex¬ 
clude the external atmosphere, which from increasing their 
naturally impatient character, renders them more susceptible of 
injury; while, on the other hand, those inured to the vicissitudes 
of the season, and assisted by the comparatively even temperature 
of their position, remain in a perfectly dormant state until the pro¬ 
per season arrives for the development of their long-stored 
energies. 
I have given you the experience of four years, one of which 
was a trying one. Still perhaps I should not be justified in re¬ 
commending the universal adoption of the method, as there may 
be situations and seasons too bleak and severe to warrant it; but 
it is, at any rate, worth a trial, under the circumstances which 
induced my first experiment. 
Hortulanus. 
PROTECTION OF PLANTS FROM FROST. 
Many and various are the means adopted for the protection of 
plants and plant-houses from frosts, and the nipping cold winds 
of our early spring months ; and yet so long as it has occupied 
attention, how much remains to be learned on the subject, and 
how seldom we find even the means at hand applied in the most 
