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Memories about
Elwyn M. Meader
-----Original Message-----
From: aziz@XXXXXXXXX
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 7:16 AM
Subject: memories of Elywyn O. Meader
In the 1990's my husband and I put up a
small home on the Meaderboro Road on a 15-acre property on the dirt road
in New Durham on the Strafford-Belknap County line. We became involved in
various projects, from where to situate the house, what to grow if
anything, how to manage the overall environment. I heard of the plant
breeder E. M. Meader who lived a few miles down the Meaderboro Road in
Rochester. We decided to ask his advice regarding our plan for a small
fruit orchard, what varieties.
Upon arriving at his territory, we saw him
sawing some trees by hand, of all things, and apparently he had never used
a chain saw. He was up in his 80's and graciously showed us around his
property.
When we asked him regarding appropriate
fruit trees for our own place, he said that he knew well our own
territory, and he came up in his car to have a look. Before coming, he
said, "...and I will bring you some rhododendrons but you must let me
pick the spot for planting."
He stuck a spade into the ground and yanked
up six small rhododendrons. When we arrived at our own property, he looked
around and said, "Here's the spot...leave them alone and they will do
just fine." So he turned over the soil, stuck in the tiny bushes
one by one and tamped his foot down - simply done. I also indicated that a
lilac bush was not doing too well. He gave the bush a casual look, then
noticed the chimney for our wood-burning stove. He said that the bush
needed potash, then told us to throw the fireplace ashes on the soil. I
asked him how he could tell that there was a potassium deficiency?
He said, "merely by looking at the leaves." And of course he turned
out to be correct. I then ultimately selected a variety of dwarf
fruit trees, two of which were Meader's breeding.
A decade later I attended my son's wedding
on that property, and though I no longer owned the house, the
rhododendrons had grown to a five plus foot height, leaves healthy and
all, lilac bush totally healthy. The fruit trees were doing only so-so,
apparently through lack of care.
In the construction of the house, my husband
dragged up some boulders one-by-one and lined the driveway with the
typical New England stonewall. Meader noticed this, and he said that that
was a fine thing to do, saying that there was--if I remember correctly-- a
way in which these walls are good for bee pollination, saying something
regarding the symbiosis between bees, and mice who would make nests in the
rock hollows.
M. Aziz
Washington, D.C. |
