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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] culls (finus)

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  • From: "Dylan Ford" <dford@suffolk.lib.ny.us>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] culls (finus)
  • Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2003 00:25:09 -0400

Dear All,
I was gently admonished off-list recently for the tone of an opinion I
submitted in a discussion of culling that busted through the orchard fence.
I apologize for my display of pique. In retrospect I wish I had simply
introduced a quote from Andre Gide's Journals that I encountered in Eleanor
Perenyi's excellent book of gardening essays, "Green Thoughts". It reads,
"Mius is gaining skill in hybridizing certain flowers; and I
have finally succeeded in convincing him that, in beds of seedlings
thus obtained, the least robust varieties often give the most
beautiful flowers. But it is only with great difficulty that I can
get him to set aside the common, vigorous varieties that can get
along without his attentions, in order to favour those that are harder
to cultivate and require his care.
If, among her artists, Greece does not count a single
Spartan, is this not because Sparta threw her puny children
into pits?"
Incidentally, I would very much commend "Green Thoughts" to anyone who
has not yet read it. It is an opportunity to spend some time with a very
lively, intelligent and curious gardener. dylan






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