86 THE GLORY OF THE GARDEN 



sympathy between growing and declining nature 

 and the moon's wax and wane. 



It is said that if timber is felled when the moon 

 is on the increase it will decay; and that it should 

 always be cut when the moon is on the wane. 



There seems to be no practical reason for this, yet 

 it is a belief which is common in many countries; 

 and professional woodcutters, whose occupation it 

 is to fell timber, state, as the actual result of their 

 own observations, that the belief is well founded. 



The theory given to account for this is that as 

 the moon grows the sap rises, and the wood is, 

 therefore, less dense than when the moon is waning, 

 because at that time the sap declines. 



The belief in the moon's influence as regards 

 timber extends also to vegetables, and was uni- 

 versally practised in England in former times, 

 although one hears less about it now. Just occasion- 

 ally one meets with an old-fashioned gardener 

 who must sow or plant according to the moon. 



They act upon the maxim that root crops should 

 be sown when the moon is decreasing, and plants 

 such as peas and beans, which bear their crops on the 

 branches, between the new and the full moon. 



Tusser writes, with regard to grafting: 



" In March is good graffing, the skilful do know, 

 So long as the wind in the East do not blow, 

 From Moone being changed, till past be the prime, 

 For graffing and cropping is very good time." 



In '* The Garden of Eden," an old gardening 

 book compiled by Sir Hugh Plat in the year 1600, 

 constant allusions are made to the necessity of 

 studying the moon's phases in gardening and 



