364 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



Aug. 



nothing but a neat and beautiful skeleton in theltive nearness to the earth. The moon, then, Oh, 

 morning. The pecuniary saving to bone dealers, Dr. Lardner ! — or your shade, if you be dead — 

 from the voracity and gnawing propensities of, does have an influence on the ivatcr! So it has on 

 the rat family, is, I was told, very considerable, certain kinds of vegetation ; the sun-light has an 

 Our Yankee Frenchman did not, however, stoi^ influence; the mof ?i-light has also an influence, 

 there. It was natural to suppose that rats, so i For what, I would respectfully ask of the sauaws, 

 well fed and provided for, would rapidly increase was the moon made? To shine, say a fourth 

 and multiply ; hence the necessity of regulating part of the nights of the year, and "keep dark" 

 the matter. Every three months a grand 'battue' 'the balance? Can "J. W. P." sleep as well on 

 is made upon the aforesaid colony of rats, and all a moonlight night as on a dark .one? It is not 

 caught above ground die the death of rats. The the light in his room that cai:^Pf6 him to be 

 manner of doing this amused me. lIorizontaL wakeful, altogether ; for he could sleep facing a 

 and cylindrical holes are bored all around, in and; lighted lamp — "cat-naps" at first, perhaps, if 

 at the foot of the enclosing walls — the depth and not accustc-med to the artificial light; but let 

 diameter being respectively the length and thick- the full moon beam into his face, and he will lie 



ness of the rat's body. Upon the morning of the 

 'battue,' men armed with tin pans, kettles, drums, 

 &c., rush in at the peep of day and 'charivari' 

 the poor rats, who, frightened to death, poke 

 their lieads into the first opening. Of course, 

 all those in the wall holes have tails sticking out. 



awake for hours reviewing the sins of his past 

 life. 



Mr. Editor, on the whole, "J. W. P." did not 

 write that article ; if he did, let me ask of him 

 respectfully to take up an old-fashioned book, 

 called the "Holy Bible," and turn to the 33d 



The rat collector, with bag over his left shoul- chapter of Deuteronomy, read the 14th verse, and 

 der, now makes a tour of the premises, and the' let reflection have its "perfect work." 

 scientific and rapid manner with which the rats J. D. Canning. 



are seized by the tail and safely (to both rats and 

 operator) transferred to the bag, challenges ad- 

 miration. It even surpasses the 'ChifFonnier's' 

 rag picking. Perhaps you wish to know what 

 becomes of the rats. These, also, are sold before 

 they are caught or killed. The privilege of gath- 

 ering rats on the 'battue' days is farmed out by 

 the authorities, and a profitable business it is. 

 These rats, sleek and fat as they necessarily are, 

 fetch a highly remunerative price — the fur, the 

 ekin, and the flesh, meet with ready sales. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 



"LUNAR INFLUENCES." 



I noticed in the Farmer, for Februar^^ 17, a 

 ehort article headed "Lunar Influences." The 

 signed initials are those of one whom I know, by 

 reputation, to be a judicious and practical man ; 

 and I was very sorry to see him express himself 

 in tlie language of ridicule, dashed with bitter 

 ness, as having no fellowship with the sufcrsti- 

 tious believers in lunar influence. 



Tlie moon may have nothing to do with the 

 cutting and killing of brush ; but, somehow or 

 other, it will kill brush to cut them in the old of 

 the moon in August. I speak from experience, 

 having first discovered the fact by accident, after 

 cutting the brush on the same land for two or 

 three years without any effect, unless it were to 

 make them "renew their youth like the eagles." 

 The moon may have no influence upon vines ; 

 but, for some reason or other, vines planted in 

 the Old of the moon ivill be more fruitful than 

 those planted in the new, as "J. "W. P." can 

 very easily ascertain by experiment. Plant them 

 80 that the pollen will not mix, and try it. 



I remember reading the lectures of one Dr. 

 Lardner, a very learned and scientific man, Avho 

 run away with another man's wife, and laid 

 down science to Uncle Sam's boys several years 

 ago. He ridiculed the superstitious traditions of 

 farmers and the '-common people" concerning 

 the influence of the moon on vegetation. The 

 6a.me Dr. Lardner ascribed the cause of the tides 

 to the attraction of the sun and moon, princi- 

 pally of tho moon, on account of her compara-l and obey this law. — Working Far?ner 



BOOK WORMS AND DUNCES. 



The diflPerence between those who sp' nd a life- 

 time in tlie perusal of antiquated works on agri- 

 culture, and those who never read at all, is much 

 less than is generally supposed ; and while a thor- 

 ough reading of the current practical improve- 

 ments of the day is highly useful, the application 

 of an antiquarian taste in tlie study of agriculture 

 is worse than useless. What can it avail to a 

 modern farmer, to know what were the processes 

 of a thousand years ago? What consequence 

 can it be to him to know what crops could be 

 raised by the use of a wooden plow, or what was 

 the opinion of Jethro Tull on matters which have 

 been materially improved and better understood 

 since his time? Many of our agricultural works 

 are half filled with the history of agriculture, 

 with scarcely a pertinent word in relation to the 

 minutia of present processes. They remind us 

 of a work which has enjoyed some popularity, 

 entitled "Hydraulics," from which no artizan 

 can learn how to build a pump. It is merely a 

 revamping of Vitruveus and other writers, de- 

 scribing the modes of raising water by the An- 

 cients. An Examiner in the Patent Office migh 

 study the history of agricultural tools with profit, 

 for it would enable him to know what was strictly 

 new, but a farmer should study to know the best 

 and most recent improvements of the day. He 

 need not fear that any tools preceding those now 

 in extended use, are superior, for had they been 

 so, they would have remained in use. No set 

 of artizans are so jealous of their old tools as 

 farmers. Any new invention must be clearly 

 proved to be superior to those which preceded it, 

 before it can find its way into the tool house of 

 most ftirmers. The continued repetition and re- 

 cital ot agricultural processes of the ancients, 

 although the fashion of the day, is like the refu- 

 sal of our colleges to grant their honors to those 

 who can substitute a knowledge of two of the 

 modern languages in place of one of the dead 

 ones. Progression is the order of the day, as 

 well as the first law of nature, and farmers, be- 

 yond all others, should be the first to remember 



