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June 2

What they would show at daybreak is the question here at issue.

The context is as follows: "One hundred and twenty acres, according to the County Clerk, is the extent of my worldly domain. But the County Clerk is a sleepy fellow, who never looks at his record books before nine o'clock. What they would show at daybreak is the question here at issue. Books or no books, it is a fact, patent both to my dog and myself, that at daybreak I am the sole owner of all the acres I can walk over. It is not only boundaries that disappear, but also the thought of being bounded. Expanses unkown to deed or map are known to every dawn, and solitude, supposed no longer to exist in my county, extends on every hand as far as the dew can reach." (excerpt from "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold) I 'm not so clear about what the sentence---"What they would show at daybreak is the question here at issue"---means.Thank you in advance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.249.213.41 (talk) 13:53, 2 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The idea is that the 'legal' extent of the author's land is 120 acres, but as a practical matter, he has free range over as much territory as he pleases, and that the land is so expansive and (by the sounds of it) untouched, that legal definitions of boundaries and ownership are unimportant. So, "what they would show at daybreak" (when the authority to define legal boundaries is not present) is the practical, in the author's opinion more meaningful, reality than what would be shown by lines on a map. some jerk on the Internet (talk) 14:28, 2 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I would read this as meaning that at that hour he can do whatever he wants on other people's land because nobody is around to stop him. He does mention that the normal boundary markers (fences, gates etc.) are present to delineate other people's property. 151.224.162.114 (talk) 14:40, 2 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Literally, the sentence means there is an open question about what property limits the county record books would show if they were opened at dawn. In fact, there is no real open question. Of course they would show the same limits as they would show at nine o'clock. Figuratively, the sentence has the meanings others have suggested, namely that there is a question whether there are any effective limits to the author's freedom of movement and action exist at daybreak. Marco polo (talk) 19:39, 2 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Wait a minute — you're telling me daybreak happens before nine o'clock? --Trovatore (talk) 19:58, 2 June 2016 (UTC) [reply]

I understand that this was discovered by Ben Franklin, as reported in his satirical essay that is sometimes cited as seriously proposing Daylight Saving Time. —Tamfang (talk) 08:46, 3 June 2016 (UTC) [reply]

Interesting you mentioned that. At the Land Registry all incoming postal applications are entered in the "Day Book" as having been received at 9 a.m. They have to do it that way because if you were to walk in and claim a title at (say) 09:59 and someone else walks in to claim the title at 10:00 you get it and she doesn't. The time they go by is Greenwich Mean Time (or its summer replacement British Summer Time), so if you're going by radio time signals (UTC) you may be pipped at the post. Were you to file your claim electronically at, say, 01:55 BST and someone else files ten minutes later at 01:05 GMT I wonder who would get the land? 151.224.163.159 (talk) 14:12, 3 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]