Re: Leaf Shredder
At 09:47 AM 11/9/99 -0400, you wrote:
>>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>
>
You're absolutely right, Bill. Some years there are acorns a-plenty, other
years they're scarce. But I've got to tell you, the correct side of the pod
for the peas to be on is the IN-side. Margaret L
