TAMARACKS, TAR SPOT, AND THE VERY ESSENCE OF TOTALITARIANISM

TAMARACK IN ODE BACK YARD

SUGAR MAPLE WITH TAR SPOT 

Wednesday, 9:00 AM.  41 degrees F, wind N,variable from calm to light.  It is overcast and things are wet from a trace of rain earlier.  The humidity is 89% and the barometer down somewhat at 30.10".  The Farmers' Almanac predicts cold and dry weather for Halloween, but it looks like warmer and wet instead (I'm tracking the Farmers' Almanac out of curiosity as to its accuracy, just for fun until I get tired of it).
   When we travelled to Wausau in central Wisconsin two weeks ago the tamaracks in most of the northern part of the state were already turning their golden fall coloration, as they approached their annual defoliation.  Here in Bayfield, a hundred and fifty miles north of Wausau, they are just now turning color. That is how much proximity to Lake Superior affects fall leaf retention, hardiness and many other physiological factors of plants,
   Tar spot of maple leaves is a lesion caused by several species of the fungus genus Rhytsma. I have been seeing quite a bit of it.   It is seldom a serious disease, although it looks threatening.  The best control, if deemed necessary, is to rake up and burn or bury affected leaves to prevent an outbreak the following year.
   Is a mere five-percent of anything something to be concerned about?  After all, it is less than fifteen million people, about five percent of the US population, who may loose their present insurance, doctors or hospitals under Obamacare, despite the President's repeated assurances to the contrary.  After all, that is a statistically unimportant number.
   Consider this: the Jewish population of Germany in 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor, was only 500,000 out of a population of sixty-seven million.  Less than one-percent. Hardly noticed as they were loaded into the cattle cars and shipped to the crematoriums.   As we all know, they didn't count to most Germans, and neither to most of the rest of the world.  It is easy to sacrifice someone else's life, health, or property, particularly if they are only a small minority.  Why can't they just "take one for the team,"  shut up, and get out of the way?
   My friends, sacrificing some else's life, liberty or property for the supposed "common good" is the very essence of totalitarianism.