Literary Pilgrimages of a NaturalistPackard, Winthrop
History
Literary Pilgrimages of a Naturalist
Packard, Winthrop
Natural history -- Outdoor books; New England -- Description and travel
Little by little nature gives us the secrets of these things, as
when after a time she taught the Australian planters why clover
would not produce seed there. It grew well in fertile soil when
seed was brought from England; it blossomed and made good fodder
for cattle, but never a seed. Then they imported bumble-bees from
the English meadows with probosces long enough to reach the nectar
in the bottom of the clover blooms and thus be pollen carriers
from plant to plant. Here was the solution of the problem, the
ichor of immortality that the clover needed. So with alfalfa and
most leguminous plants. Scientific investigation has shown that if
seeds of these are to grow well and thrive in new regions distant
from that of their cultivation more is needed than the right soil
and climate. Certain mysterious bacteria are present on the roots
of all plants of this genus, and in some obscure way take from the
soil and give to the plants the elements of vigor and success. Now
the scientific horticulturist steeps his seeds of alfalfa or other
leguminous plants in a culture of these bacteria, and knows that
if his planting is in fertile ground and the sun and rain do their
work well his harvest will be bountiful. Here again is the ichor of
the gods, Vishnu become fluid and incarnating himself in obscure
bacteria for the building of the plant world.
So, I can but fancy, has it been with Concord and her men. The
seed of the Kentish heroes of Harold’s time has grown since in many
soils. In Concord when time was ripe it found fluid there some of
the ichor of the immortals coursing through farming tools to the
making of fire for heroic deeds. The Concord fight did not happen;
it had to be. It was not that every Concord farmer’s barn was full
of munitions of war. Every Concord farmer’s blood was full of
powder. The shot had to be fired there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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