Re: Leaf Shredder
>Incidentally, we have never had as many acorns as we have this year. An
>old-timer tells me that means a cold winter lies ahead.
Interesting how the "old-timers" never attribute current conditions to a
past cause, but always assume they predict the (unknowable) future. Tried
recently to argue with a neighbor about this--my point was that we have
lots of acorns because conditions were good in the spring for the
fertilization of oak flowers, and we got just enough rain to bring the
resulting fruit along. No, he wasn't having any. Somehow he felt it was
in the oak trees' interest to produce a lot of acorns in advance of a cold
winter. Then I tried a little natural selection on him to see if he could
tell me why the oaks should sacrifice their potential offspring (acorns) to
feed the squirrels through a "cold winter". At that point the discussion
got religious and I changed the subject.
Darwin used to keep up a correspondence with farmers and herdsmen all over
Britain because the information he got from them was often useful. One
summer he got a letter asking him for an explanation as to why "all the
peas are on the wrong side of the pod this year." Darwin enquired as to
what the correct side was, but got no reply.....
Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@hsc.edu>
