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  • From: larrymaxcy@earthlink.net
  • To: gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [gwl-g] Re: phenology and planting dates
  • Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 20:40:40 -0800 (GMT-08:00)

In doing research for a book a while ago, I came across a referece to the
British custom, at least at one time, of sitting naked on the soil to
determine if it had warmed enough for planting. The claim was made that this
was still practiced in some Ozark and other remote mountain communities.

A tradition employing the same temperature-sensing mechanism was developed
separately in the new world by some Iroquois. Women did the planting in those
societies. A young man would be "kidnapped" and made to sit on the planting
beds. A shivering lad meant it was sill too cold to plant.

I do not present any of this as proven science or properly footnoted history.

Larry Maxcy






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