356 



Popular Errors. — Rural Comforts. 



Vol. V. 



Popular Errors — Farming in the Moon. 



The moon has given rise to abundance of 

 superstitious observances, and from the very 

 earliest a^es has been supposed to exercise a 

 great influence over the earth and men. 

 Many of tliese superstitions have been ex- 

 ploded, while others still retain no inconsi- 

 derable hold on the public mind, and are 

 pregnant sources of error. On no point is 

 this more perceptible than in farming. That 

 the moon can produce any perceivable influ- 

 ence on crops, or deserves the slightest re- 

 gard in their sowing or planting, is a notion 

 as false in philosophy, as it is contrary to fact. 

 That the waxing or waning of the moon has 

 any influence on the growth of vegetables or 

 their germination, is a notion belonging to 

 the same age as astrology and witchcraft: 

 and like these beliefs, should ere this have 

 ceased to exist. The celebrated Arago col- 

 lected from various sources all the well-au- 

 thenticated facts relating to the influence of 

 the moon on agriculture and the weather, and 

 came to the conclusion, "that there was no 

 reason whatever to confirm the common no- 

 tion that changes of weather attended changes 

 of the moon, or that this luminary has any 

 perceptible effect, or is in the least worthy 

 of notice in conducting the processes of agri- 

 culture." Some of the old superstitions or 

 notions on this subject may, however, be 

 worthy of notice here. Tusser says, in his 

 " 500 Points of Husbandry :"— 



"Sow peas and beans in the wane of the moon. 

 Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon ; 

 That they with the planet may rise. 

 And flourish with bearing most plentiful-wise." 



But though such was the general feeling, 

 there were some enlightened and intelligent 

 enough to perceive the absurdity of such no- 

 tions, and expose these errors. Thus VVever- 

 fel, in 1743, in an Essay on Superstition, 

 says: — 



"The superstitious man will not commit 

 his seed to the earth when the soil, but when 

 the moon requires it. He will not have his 

 hair cut when the moon is in Leo, lest his 

 locks should stare like a lion's mane ; or when 

 it is in Aries, lest they should curl like a 

 ram's horn." 



I would say to the farmer, don't trouble 

 yourself about the moon. See that your land 

 is in fine tilth, well manured and drained; 

 your seed fresh and free from foul matter; 

 and when you are ready, sow, without con- 

 sulting the moon or the almanac. If all is 

 right in other respects, the moon, no matter 

 what may be its position, will not hurt you 

 or your crop; and if your land is but half pre- 

 pared or tilled, rely on the moon as much as 

 you please, and you have no right to expect 

 a crop. 



If you see at the present time, a man'a 

 fences buried in briars, his fields overrun with 

 bushes and thistles, and his orchards neither 

 trimmed nor pruned ; that man may be set 

 down as a believer in signs, one who governs 

 his farming by the moon, and who will, in all 

 probability, reap such a harvest, and experi- 

 ence sucli results, as so irrational and unphi- 

 losophical a course indicates. — Gen. Far. 



For tlie Farmers' Cabinet. 

 French and American Rural Comforts. 



Mr. Editor, — To be able to "define our 

 proper position in the world," and to form a 

 true estimate of our character and standing 

 in the scale of human beings, it will be ne- 

 cessary for us to compare ourselves by the 

 standard of comfort and happiness enjoyed in 

 other civilized countries, and especially with 

 the inhabitants of those states which have 

 been for ages under other forms of gov- 

 ernment, become venerable from their an- 

 tiquity. I am led at present to this subject, 

 by a perusal of the article in the Cabinet for 

 March, on the state of society in that part of 

 the continent which is denominated "the 

 Granary of Europe," where cijeap land and 

 low wages seem almost synonymous with 

 misery and starvation. 



During a late tour in the low countries in 

 France, I was struck dumb while witnessing 

 the state of society in that part of "dear, de- 

 lightful France," having never before had the 

 most distant idea of the possibility that such 

 a low, debased, and degraded state of things 

 could exist in any civilized country under 

 heaven; and I have never, since my return, 

 been able to find words to express my feel- 

 ings, or to describe what I there saw: but as 

 I have since Ibund the same scenes pour- 

 trayed to the life in Blackwood's Magazine, 

 all I have to do is to bear testimony to the 

 truth of the picture, which is by no means 

 too highly coloured, and which I do most 

 conscientiously; congratulating my fellow- 

 countrymen on the comfort and happiness 

 which they enjoy in this blessed land of lib- 

 erty and high wages. The traveller thus 

 commences: — 



" Nantes, in Bretagne. Passed through a 

 productive country, where the cows seemed 

 the legitimate proprietors — the peasantry, in- 

 terlopers. The fields were luxuriant, but all 

 that betokened the presence of man was de- 

 plorable. ' God made the country and man 

 made the town," is the poet's manner of ac- 

 counting for narrow streets, but the general 

 order of French towns do not come within 

 the catalogue of human buildings — nothing 

 on earth comes nearer to the troglodyte style. 

 Nine-tenths of them seem to have been the 



