494 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



justified in saying that one-half of the horse- 

 shrers are incompetent to the task, saving noth- 

 ing about their workmanship of setting shoes. 

 I have no doubt but some fancy shoers are the 

 cause of splints, bogs, and curbs, as well as kick- 

 ing, cringing, pulling at the halter, etc. etc. 



Reader, if you are the owner of a good horse, 

 go yourself and see him shod, unless you are well 

 acquainted with the sheer, and know him to be 

 careful, patient, mild tempered and humane. 

 Withdraw your patronage fiom all reverse char- 

 acters, before you sustain a loss. Nevtr submit 

 to, or employ a sheer whose character and in- 

 tellect is inferior to that of your horse. If you 

 do, you may have him lamed, abused and spoiled. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOON UPON 

 VEGETATION AND THE WEATHEK. 



With the many good things we have inherited 

 from our progenitors, are many foolish notions 

 that have been faithfully transmitted from one 

 generation to another ; and among the more 

 common are those in relation to the peculiar in- 

 fluence of the moon upon vegetation and the 

 weather. Though generally discarded among 

 the more intelligent, there are many who still ad- 

 here to them with tenacious faith, and believe 

 that planting potatoes, peas, beans, melons, and 

 all plants of similar habits, at some particular 

 age of the moon, is mere liktly to cause the en- 

 ergies of the plant to result in the production of 

 vines than otherwise; or, in other words, to "jun 

 to vines" if planted in the "new of the moon." 

 That this is an idle fancy is altogether probable ; 

 though when a crop stems to "run to vines," 

 this is ascribed as the cause without fuJther 

 thought, by farmers generally. Peas have grown 

 in my garden the past season to the average 

 height of between seven and eight feet — the 

 highest we or any of our neighbors ever saw — 

 and several farmers who saw them, were not slow 

 to remark, "you must have planted them in the 

 new of the moon," but to me there appeared suf- 

 ficient cause for their lu.xuriant growth in the 

 highly manured soil and a wet season. 



The opinion in regard to the moon's influence 

 upon the weather seems to be more general, and 

 recognized by those familiar with Nature's laws 

 and her operations-several meteoroloj^ists of note 

 giving countenance to the idea — while the scores 

 oi sjiecial "signs," based on the form or position 

 of the new moon, must be groundless, as, for ex- 

 ample, when the horns of the crescent moon are 

 in such a position that the "old Indian can hang 

 his powder-horn thereon, it will be dry weather," 

 or "it is a dry moon," and vice versa. This oc- 

 currence is observed at regular intervals, and de- 

 pends upon the relative positions of the moon 

 and sun. 



By many, special power is attributed to the 

 "old of the moon." That in August is the b'test 

 time to cut bushes, and eradicate shrub-oaks and 

 willoMS, I have no doubt ; but that the age of the 

 moon has anything to do with it, or renders one 

 part of the month preferable to another for the 

 purpose, I beg leave to dissent from, nothwith- 

 standing the familiar saying, "Mow bushes in the 

 old cf the moon in August to prevent sprouting ;" 



and it taxes my credulity in the potency ascribed 

 to the moon a little too much to believe her so 

 powerful as to authorize the old sayings about 

 doing this in the old moon, and that in the new 

 in preference to any other time. It savors too 

 much of btlief in unlucky Fridays. 



My attention was directed to the subject of 

 hmar ipfiuevce vpon ihe ttmptrature by remarks 

 in an article in the August number of the month- 

 ly Farmer, ps^ge 380, by N. T. T., of Bethel, Me. 

 He says : "Physicists are not inclined to attach 

 I much importance to the influence of the moon 

 upon the weather, but it seems to be a well es- 

 tablished fact that when the moon runs high, as 

 farmers say, it is colder than at other times. It 

 is the dread of the farmer that he shall have a 

 frost on the full of the moon, either late in the 

 spring or early in the autumn. He always looks 

 for it at that time, and no other," etc.; and adds : 

 "Here I believe is an interesting field of inquiry, 

 requiring, to be sure, a long series of observa- 

 tions, but which will result in something impor- 

 tant to the cause of science and scientific agri- 

 culture." 



As I chance to have the means at hand of as- 

 certaining, for a short time at least, the facts in 

 the matter, taking my old almanacs and compar- 

 ing the "moon runs low" and the "moon runs 

 l.igh," v,ith my thermometrical tables and writ- 

 ten account of the we&ther of each day for the 

 last three and a half years, I have the following 

 results: By taking the mean temperature of 

 three days when the moon was high or low, (the 

 day of the maximum or minimum height, and the 

 day preceding and substquent,) and averaging 

 all the observations vhen the moon was low, and 

 comparing them with an aveiage of all the ob- 

 servations when the moon was high, for three 

 years, ending with August, 1859, comprising 

 eiyltly observalions, I find the average of theob- 

 servations to be 22^ Icwer when the moon was 

 liigh than when she was hnc ; the mean of all 

 the observations when the moon was low be- 

 ing 47 31°, and the sf;me when the moon was 

 high being 47 09°. For the ytar ending with 

 August, 1807, there was a difi'erence of l.G.j° in 

 favor of the theory that the temperature is higher 

 when the moon runs low ; the year ending with 

 Aug., 1858, gave 1.57° again.st the theory, while 

 the year ending with Aug., 1859, gave a differ- 

 ence of .58° in favor of it, as is shown by the fol- 

 lowing 



TABLE 



Of the Mein of Observations when the Moon Ban 



Low. Hiah. 



For the year ending Aug., 1857 46 65" 45" 



" " ISiS 48.11° 4968° 



" " " 18f,9 47.17° 46 59° 



For three years end. Aug., 1869 47.31° 47.09° 



Of course, nothing decisive in this matter can 

 be derived from so short a period of observation 

 as I have given ; but that this theory, or rather 

 opinion, so prevalent, in regard to the moon's 

 influence on the temperature can be sustained, I 

 am strongly inclined to doubt, although it is not 

 to be denied that the moon exerts a great influ- 

 ence upon our atmosphere, producing tidal 

 swells, as has been reliably ascertained by a long 

 series of barometrical observations by men who 

 have devoted much of their attention to meteo- 

 rology, and probably lunar influence has cocsid 



