Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1875 — How to Treat Tender Plants That Hare Become Frozen. [ARTICLE]

How to Treat Tender Plants That Hare Become Frozen.

The disastrous effects which tender plants that have become frozen are subject to is generally known to cultivators; but how or why freezing produces the effect it does upon plant life is not so easily ascertained, and all attempts heretofore made by scientific men to solve the question have been, at most, only partially successful. In practical experience it is found that the length of time and the degree of cold to which plants are exposed affect them in proportion to th( duration and intensity of these conditions, which points, therefore, to the speedy restoration of a suitable temperature as the best means of restoring plants that have been unfortunately exposed to frosts. But the thawing out should, in all cases, be moderately gradual, and one of the best things to do when plants Rave become frozen, either in the dwelling, conservatory or in the open air, is to "sprinkle the foliage with cold cistern or well water, as the temperature turns to rise. In the dwelliugor conservatory, however, it will be necessary to start the lire in the stove, furnace or flue the first thing of all, to give the temperature an ascendency, but it should, for several hours,, not be allowed to rise above an ordinary suitable degree. Some advocate shading the plants from the sun and light for some length of time, but the policy of so doing has never been apparent to me; while 1 have frequently had strong proofs to the contrary —that the sun’s rays striking upon the plants witli gradually increasing heat in a great measure aids their recovery. There is a great difference in plants as regards their ability to resist cold, and while some tin slightest frost will injure beyond curt others will bear Various degrees, and even alternate freezing and thawing again and again with impunity. Avoid handling plants in a frozen condition as much as possible, as the injury to them will be heightened should the leaves become bent \ or be roughly brushed over. To restore flowers that* have become frozen, place them in cold water until they have thawed j out.— Home Florist. i —A writer in the Popular-Science Month- ; ly states that poisoning is the mode of sui-! eide oftenest chosen "in the city of New j York—2lß out of (WO persons having died bv fliis means. Arsenic is the poison chiefly resorted to, and in its commonest form—Paris-green. In 1871 fourteen suicides took Paris-green and in 1872 twentytwo out of fifty poisoning cases took the same. Statistics show that insanity causes the largest number 6f suicides, both j of men and "women. After this comes ! drunkenness and then disease. j