Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/368

336&#93; SJ6] FRO not preceded it, Dr. Darwin sup- poses that a hoar-frost may be less injurious than a black-frost ; be- cause the case of ice on the buds of trees, or on young grass, being instantly produced, covers them with a bad conductor of heat, and prevents them from being exposed to so great cold as is occasioned by the continuance of a black frost, ■without hoar or rime. 3. An anonymous foreign writer (suggests the practice of depriving, towards the latter end of autumn, those fruit-trees of their leaves, which are exposed to the injury of winter-frosts j and adds, that some precaution is necessary in this ope- ration, to save the buds which are bv Nature destined to unfold in the succeeding spring, from any exter- nal injur)'. Yet such defoliation ought not to be undertaken with all trees, at the same period of time 5 as those which possess a greater abundance of sap, should be*allow- cd to keep their leaves to a later season, than others having a less portion of vegetable juic In order to recover and pre such trees from total decay, as have evidently been injured by severe' winter-frost, a correspondent has favi >ured us w ith the following easy and expeditious remedy; for the success of which he appeals to his repeated experience : When a tree appears to have suffered from in- tense cold, he advises to make lon- gitudinal incisions in the bark, ex- tending to the whole length of the trunk, on the north, west, and east rection. As the east-windi aredry and piercing, very fi v. and super- ficial slits only should be mad' mi that side. This operation > to bi performed in the month of March, before the first Bap rj FRO and repeated in June, while th» second sap ascends ; but always so managed, that only the upper- most bark, or epidermis, be di- vided; as too deep an incision, though harmless in the spring* might be attended with fatal conse- quences in the heat of summer. In trees, however, which are tho- roughly frozen, it will be useful to make deeper cuts ; thus to give vent to the stagnant fluids, and promote their circulation. These cuts should be directed against the centre of the. tree, drawn in a straight line downwards 3 for, in the con- trary case, the bark is apt to sepa- rate in chinks, afford shelter to vermin, and eventually frustrate the at tempt. By a strict adherence to these rules, it will be found that apple-trees, in particular, when slit in every direction (except the south side, retain all their bark ; others, which had undergone one-half of the operation, were but partially preserved ; and sue!) as had re- ceived only two cuts, retained only the intermediate portion of. the bark, from which they produced n w shoots. This simple method is farther attended with the addi- tional benefit that, while contri- buting to the growth of the tree' thus affected, it tend.-, to prevent the decay of those which have in the preceding year been injured by the depredations of caterpillars, and the subsequent stagnation of then; fluids. Although it has been generally believed, that frost meliorates the soil, and especially clay-lands, yet as ice contains no nitrous particle,, such improvem* nts can only be of a transitory nature, by enlarging the bulk of some moist soils, and leaving them more porous for some time after the thaw 3 but, when the
 * i; but never in a southern di-