World Book Heat

[Dalmatian90]

For example, the colonists (few were farmers back in England) attempted to plant crops that don't perform well here. Wheat was planted whereas maize is more suitable. Ditto with peas - beans do much better.

Knew a guy (from online) who moved from Maine to Tennessee. Professional gardener -- owned a market farm in Maine, got a job as the gardener at the Hermitage IIRC in Tennessee and re-started his market garden on a smaller scale for a side income.

It surprised him just how poorly his seeds saved from his Maine farm performed in Tennessee. Wasn't a cultivar problem, they could grow fine there, it was his particular strains that were adapted to Maine that weren't thriving well.

He was figuring it would take about five years of selective seed saving to get back up to the performance he had at his Maine farm.

Pilgrims probably faced a similiar issue -- even crops that could eventually grow here might need five or ten years of human selection to get back up to the performance they had in the old country.

(BTW -- a book called Guns, Germs, and Steel is a great read that talks alot about how agriculture spread around the world, and why it spread much quickly in the middle east -- asia -- europe then it did elsewhere, for very similiar reasons)

 

[hypothesis]

To twist things back to Windwlker7's question: after butchering a deer this year, I threw the bones into my Shaver 290 crematory. With a good bed of coals they burned up and added some calcium into the garden ashes. Down wind smelled like a slightly over cooked steak.

 

[johncinco]

Yeah burning em is bad. You should donate them to a good cause. Like Goodwill.

They have em ground up and turned into insulation,

I double dog dare ya to find someone who actually wants them. While it feels benevolent to try and preserve them, its a pointless exercise.

BTW, 90% of clothes donated are bundled, shredded, and turned into industrial fiber for commercial use. The next time you are boxing up and driving your old T shirts and Speedos to donate, just chuck em in the burner and be more eco-efficient.