Evening star., 1946-11-08
This and That
By Charles z. TraceDeH.
Va.

Dear Sir:
Some folks in this district seem to
think they are rendering service by
raking up pile Of leaves and setting
fire to them
They don't consider how much they
are annoying the good neighbors who
must put up with that acrid smell in
their kitchens and other rooms.
"If they can't use them for compost
(and they could they can put them into
men to take.
ITO me every leaf that falls represents
another life passing out, and after rake
up a good pile feel like making them
into beautiful garlands. for these leaves
rendered good service all summer to
help make us comfortable.
But the proper thing to do is to
give them back to the earth that gave
them, and they will again reward us
with bigger and better gardens and
crops next year.
Leaf compost Is very valuable as fer
tilizer, and can be easily turned over
with the soil when working the ground
next spring.
These leaf burners should realize
that they are doing wrong to nature
by the odor of the ashes. and they are
destroying the very elements that make
for future productiveness
Sincerely, E. W."
+ X
Probably this thing is more matter
Of a good nose than anything else.
It may be that persons with poor
olfactory senses like to burn leaves.
Smoke does not offend them.
But those persons who are sensitive
to bad odors refuse to burn them, If
they can get out of 1t.
Smell is the most abused of all our
senses. -s
Many persons live as if it didn't ex-
list. Perhaps 1t doesn't-for them. We
remember fine old man who lived near
the gas tanks. He had lost the sense of
smell in his youth, and the escaping gas
didn't bother him at all.
Most people fail to realize the vast
difference in sensitivity along these
lines.
Some can smell bear mile off,
while others scarcely know the differ-.
ence between good" smell and
bad" one.
What makes the difference may be in
dispute, but there is no doubt about the
thing itself, at least to the person gifted
with a good "smeller."
He, after all, must be the judge.
He, alone, can tell. Yet because there
is no way of demonstrating his acute
sense, others can pretend that it doesn't
exist.
The person with sensitive nose often
lives life of discomfort, which those
around him fail to understand.
Cooking cabbage, cigarette smoke, too
strong cigars and pipes, musty odors-
these and many others make his nose
shrink.
He sometimes wonders If the more
civilized man is, the better sense OF
smell he has, or the worse
1t is true that savages are almost like
animals in this respect, but that may
be because they have not had as many
contrasts to put up with.
All their senses are keener and more
direct, with no mental inhibitions to
put them off the scent.
s But if the sensitive person must put
up with many to him disagreeable,
smells, which others do not mind at all
including the ,acrid one of burning
leaves-he also has many compensations.
The odors of certain summer flowers
at eventide are his where others fail to
catch the scent.
Old books give out rare fragrances, at
least to the booklover.
The hunger-compelling odor Of fresh
ground coffee-but that, certainly, is
smell beloved of most persons.
1t is too bad the odor Of burning
leaves does not equal that Of the roasted
coffee bean.