26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



AUGUST 7, 1833. 



I am unable then lo give any other explanation 

 of the failure of my wheat crop, than that a most 

 unfavorable state of the weather occurred precisely 

 at the time, when the crop was most susceptible 

 of injury. This after all may not be the true ac- 

 count of it ; anil as we must rely upon facts much 

 more than upon any opinions, I will endeavor to 

 collect from several of my neighbors, who have 

 cultivated wheat the present year, whether with 

 or without success, the true history of their crops; 

 and if the facts appear valuable will forward them 

 to you for publication. I wish other farmers, fa- 

 vorably situated, would do the same, and thus 

 coufer on the agricultural public a substantial ben- 

 efit. 



I know how much more agreeable it is to com- 

 municate an account of our successes than of our 

 disappointments; and most certainly it would for 

 yarious reasons have been never more gratifying 

 to have informed you of my good rather than of 

 my ill fortune ; but such disappointments are far 

 from being unmixed evil ; and it will be no small 

 compensation to me if at any time by exposing the 

 circumstance of my own ill success, I can save 

 others from a similar loss and disappointment. 



Meadowbanks, July 25, 1833. H. C. 



For the New England Fanner. 

 INFLUENCE OP THE MOON. 



Mr. Fessenden, Some weeks ago I saw a piece 

 in your paper, copied I think from the Genesee 

 Farmer, apparently to ridicule those who have any 

 respect to the influence of the moon on vegetables. 



If all are to be called ridiculous who believe iu 

 Facts, how are we to expect improvements ? I 

 do not call myself a Fanner, but I hr.ye bought 

 and sold many pieces of land, and have needed 

 only a little to improve, yet I have not lived more 

 than 80 years without making some observations. 

 I am one of those who believe in the influence of 

 the moon on the productions of the earth. 



Alders, in some low lands grow in great plenty, 

 and have been cut up repeatedly, in such pastures, 

 without lessening or destroying them. Let them 

 be cut at a certain time of the moon, in August, 

 and they will not sprout again, but die, and the 

 stubs will soon rot. The time this year is the 14th 

 and 15th days. Let the incredulous try it. 



Ridiculous as this may seem, I could prove my 

 assertion by a relation of facts, and how it hap- 

 pened that I fixed on that time, would not the re- 

 lation be too prolix and tedious. 



Chesnut and black ash timber, cut for rails at 

 the last quarter of the moon, especially in February 

 and March, is, (I believe from experience) of four 

 times the value for fence to that cut at the first 

 quarter. I do not say in but at. The same pro- 

 bably might be said of timbers cut for building and 

 other purposes. 



Chesnut, cut down at the last quarter of the 

 moon is tolerable fuel when dried, but if cut at 

 the first quarter, the snapping is very troublesome 

 in an open fire place. Cut hemlock at said times, 

 split it fine and dry it, and there is as much differ- 

 ence in their burning as there is between a squir- 

 rel hunt and an Indian battle. Yours, &c. 



Berkshire, July 1833. O. P. 



P. S- The reason 1 give' for alder-bushes dy- 

 ing when cut at said time, is that the sap flows so 

 plentifully as completely to exhaust the roots, and 

 they soon dry, absorb moisture and rot fast. O. P. 



By the Editor. We have ever been somewhat 

 inclined to incredulity on the subject of the influ- 



ence of the moon in vegetation. We have be- 

 lieved that the agency of that planet is confined to 

 the tides o( the ocean and of the atmosphere. But 

 philosophers of ancient times gave the moon much 

 credit for her interference in sublunary concerns. 

 "The ancients had a great regard to the age of the 

 moon in the felling of their timber. Their rules 

 were to fell in the wane, of within four days after 

 the new moon. Some let it be the last quarter. 

 Pliny orders it to be in the very article of the 

 change, which happening on the last day of the 

 winter solstice [shortest day in the winter] the 

 timber, he says, will be immortal : Columella 

 says, from the 20th to the 28th day : Cato, four 

 days after the full : Vegetius,'from the 15th to the 

 25th, for ship timber ; but never in the increase, 

 trees then most abounding with moisture, the only 

 source of putrefaction."* 



An old book on Agriculture by the Rev. Dr. 

 Jared Elliot, much esteemed by our ancestors, 

 contains the following remarks on this subject. 



"In my fourth essay, I informed the reader I 

 was in hopes, that I bad found certain times for 

 cutting bushes, which would be more effectual for 

 their destruction than any yet discovered ; that if 

 I found it so 1 would give notice of it in my next: 

 I am glad I am able to perform that promise : the 

 times are in the months of June, July and August, 

 in the old of the moon that day the sign is in the 

 heart. It will not always happen every month : 

 it happened so but once this year, and that proves 

 to be on Sunday. Last year in June or July, I 

 forget which, I sent a man to make trial: in go- 

 ing to the place, some of the neighbors under- 

 standing by him the business he was going about, 

 and t)ie reason of his going at that point of time, 

 they also went to their land, and cut bushes also 

 on that day ; theirs were tall bushes that had never 

 been cut; mine were short bushes, such as had 

 often been cut to no purpose, without it was to 

 increase their number. The consequence was, 

 that in every place it killed so universally that 

 there is not left alive scarcely one in a hundred. 

 The trial was made in three or four places on that 

 same day. — In July or August on the critical day, 

 another swamp was cut, the brush was the greater 

 part of it swamp button wood, the most difficult 

 to subdue of any wood I know ; I have been 

 lately to see it, and find the destruction of these 

 bushes is not so universal as among alders and 

 other sorts of growth. * * * 



"The reason why there was not the same suc- 

 cess attending the cutting these button bushes as 

 the other sorts, I suppose to be from the stubborn 

 nature of this kind, which would yield to no cut- 

 ting; the ordinary way has been to dig or plough 

 it up by the roots, so that considering the nature 

 of the bush 1 have had great success : the ground 

 being very boggy, those who mowed them were 

 obliged to cut them very high, which was another 

 disadvantage. 



" To show such a regard to the signs may in- 

 cur the imputation of ignorance or superstition, 

 for the learned know well enough, that the division 

 of the zodiac into twelve signs, and the appro- 

 printing these to the several parts of the human 

 body, is not the work of nature but of art, con- 

 trived by astronomers for convenience. It is also 

 well known that the moon's attraction hath great 

 influence on all sorts of fluids. 



" It is also well known to farmers, that there 



Rees' Cyclopedia. 



are times when bushes if cut will universally die. 

 A regard to the sign, as it serveth to point out and 

 direct the proper time, so it becomes worthy of 

 observation. 



" If farmers attend to the time with care, and 

 employ hands on those days, they will find their 

 account in it. This rule attended to may save the 

 country many thousand days' work. A farmer of 

 good credit told me, that he had found by expe- 

 rience that bushes cut with a sharp too) would 

 die more than when cut with a dull one. This 

 looks agreeable to reason, lor the sharp scythe 

 leaves the mouths of the sap vessels all open by 

 which means they bleed more plentifully ; the dull 

 instrument bruises the part, and in a degree doth 

 close up the wound." 



Some modern scientific and practical men have 

 likewise expressed opinions in favor of attending 

 to the stale of the moon in cutting timber. The 

 Farmer's Assistant, page 382, says, " We are as- 

 sured from an experienced builder of some of the 

 first rate bridges in the northern part of this coun- 

 try, that such timber as is to be exposed to the 

 water, or to frequent wetness, should he felled 

 during the increase of the moon ; and such as is to 

 be kept dry, should be felled during the decrease 

 of that planet." 



Dr. Deane, Col. 'Pickering, and most other sci- 

 entific agriculturists of modern times have denied 

 that tlfe moon has any agency in matters relating 

 to agriculture or rural economy. We have been 

 somewhat inclining towards the anti-lunar party, 

 and have thought that that planet never intermed- 

 dled with a farmer's concerns. Still it is improper 

 that any preconceived theories or great authorities 

 should induce us to overlook, or disregard, matters 

 of/act. If we should refuse to believe all that we 

 cannot comprehend, we must deny the power of 

 magnetism, electricity, gravitation, in which won- 

 derful effects are indicated, but their causes bid de- 

 fiance our limited powers of investigation. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SUCCESSFUL CULTURE OF WHEAT. 



Northampton, July 25, 1833. 

 Mr. Fessenden, I have noticed several arti- 

 cles recently in the Farmer, assigning reasons for 

 the failure of the wheat crop on old land like 

 " Northampton flats." So far as my observation 

 has extended, the only cause of failure has been 

 our fanners are not in the habit of sowing it. I 

 ventured, last fall, to sow two acres of wheat and 

 one of rye. The crop of wheat will be about 

 double the number of bushels to the acre as that 

 of the rye. About one third of my seed was the 

 white flint — the remainder the common bearded 

 wheat. In May last our meadows were flowed. 

 A flood has always been considered sure to blast 

 English grain. -After the flood had receded from 

 the meadows all kinds of grain of this description 

 grew finely and the straw looked very bright until 

 about the 10th July, when there suddenly appear- 

 ed a rust upon it. The white flint or bald wheat 

 being about ten days later than the bearded wheat 

 was blasted badly, while the latter is generally 

 good. These remarks apply to lands that were 

 not flowed as well as to those that were. We get 

 from our "flats" from 20 to 40 bushels of corn as 

 an average crop. I took from 57 rods 14 shocks 

 of wheat that will yield over a bushel to a shock — 

 I think I put it low at 35 bushels to the acre. The 

 land had been used for corn several years with 

 about eight loads of manure put in the hole. The 



