VIII. THE NOVEMBER SEED-CROP 



" 'Tis all a myth that Autumn grieves 

 For, list the wind among the sheaves; 

 Far sweeter than the breath of May" 



Samuel M. Peck (Autumn's Mirth). 



November, in our latitude, is nature's season of plenty. 

 Her work of crop production is done. Living is easy for all 

 her creatures. The improvident may have their choice of 

 fruits, or may eat only of the seeds that are best liked and 

 most easily gathered. The frugal and foresighted may 

 gather winter stores. It was no mere arbitrary impulse of 

 our Puritan pioneers that settled upon November as the 

 season of special Thanksgiving. 



Nature's prodigality of seed production is for the benefit of 

 her animal population. She gives them the excess. They in 

 their turn are very wasteful in their handling of the seed. 

 They never eat all that they gather, but scatter and lose some 

 of it in places favorable for growth next season. Thus they 

 aid in distributing and in planting the seed. The sleek and 

 surfeited meadow mice scatter grains along their runways 

 and never find them again, and these lost seeds are favorably 

 situated for growth at the proper season. It is only a 

 remnant of them that will escape the more careful search 

 of the beasts when the hunger of the lean season is on, but so 

 great is the excess of production, that this remnant is, in the 

 nice balance of nature, sufficient to keep the species going. 



It is a long, lean season that follows on November in our 

 latitude, and the seed-crop, though abundant, is not sufficient 

 to feed all the wild animal population. So nature takes 

 various measures to eke it out. She puts to sleep in hiberna- 

 tion the great majority of animals. These include nearly all 



66 



