162 



FARMERS' REGISTER— INFLUENCE OF THE MOON. 



velopements in rural economy, are received with 

 so much jealousy by the mass of cultivators. And 

 hence, my dear sir, the propriety, (if tlie general 

 good be the object,) of writers for such a journal 

 as yours, signing their names to what they reconi ■ 

 mend to others. I speak generally ; for, in some 

 cases, it may be both improper and unnecessary 

 fo do so. Tuition in the school of experience is 

 much dearer than in the school of books — still they 

 mutually aid each other ; for, the lessons of the 

 one are learned as soon again with, as without, 

 those of the other. Every one will acknowledge 

 the aptness and truth of your remark, tliat "spec- 

 ulative opinions, or pieces merely argumentative, 

 require not the authority of names to give them 

 character : they carry with them their own truth 

 and force, or their fallacy and weakness." 



The article you have copied from the London 

 Farmers' Journal, and your own remarks 



ON HAY MAKING, 



induce me to offer to your readers a suggestion on 

 that subject which is the result of costly experi- 

 ence. 1 lost two fine crops of clover hay, by at- 

 tempting to cure it up too green ; and I have had 

 some herds grass injured in the same way. To 

 avoid similar losses I now put up the hay in very 

 tall cocks, and as small at the bottom as they can 

 be made. In the commencement of this practice 

 I found that the wind, when strong, blew off near- 

 ly one third of the hay, and that it was, conse- 

 quently, much damaged by rain or by too much 

 sun — to remedy this, I now use skewers, about 

 the size of the Avrist, and from five to seven feet 

 long, sharpened at both ends. The hay ought to 

 be put into cocks the same day it is cut, and as 

 soon as it falls, or becomes limber and tough. — 

 If the weather be warm and the atmosphere dry, 

 they may be doubled the same day. When the 

 cocks rise five feet high, the skewer may be run 

 into the top and pressed down eighteen inches or 

 two feet. Around the part of the skewer which 

 rises above the cock, more hay may be put in the 

 manner of stacking ; and in finishing off the cock, 

 the masses of hay delivered by the fork should be 

 put on the top of the skewer and be pressed down, 

 as long as any can be made to stay. The little 

 stack will then be in the form of a sugar loaf; and 

 its diameter so small that no injury need be ap- 

 prehended from over heating. Tlie most conve- 

 nient fork to be used is that which has four crook- 

 ed steel prongs and a spadelike handle. It is en- 

 tirely unnecessary to scatter the hay about the 

 f round to cure it, as is the common practice. — 

 V"hen the crop is very heavy, the swaths may 

 be doubled or trebled after a few hours sun, and 

 somewhat loosened up by the fork in doing it. 



Herds grass ought not to be cut until the seed 

 are nearly ripe — say when the heads begin to 

 turn brown. The same remark applies to clo- 

 ver — allowing only a third (or the old heads) to 

 get brown. 



The cocks of any grass, except clover, put up 

 in the manner I have described will remain unin- 

 jured until the heavy rains of the lidl set in ; and 

 then they only become damaged at the bottom. 

 It is a great convenience, at so busy a season of 

 the year, to cure a crop of hay so expeditiously ; 

 and then, to be enabled to leave it in the field 

 without risk until other crops are disposed of — 

 The skewers may be eitlier of split timber or of 

 the young growth in the woods. They ought to 



be preserved from year to year. The great ad- 

 vantage of using them cannot fail to strike the 

 mind of every reflecting, practical Farmer. — 

 A little experience will teach him how to make 

 his cocks so as to prevent their capsizing or lean- 

 ing one way or another. 



Clover hay may be cured in this way ; but it 

 cannot be safely trusted out too long ; for, when 

 cured, the rain passes through it readily and de- 

 stroys it. Yet, when raised into very tall cocks, 

 by means of the skewer, it may be brought to so 

 sharp an apex, that it will turn rain pretty well. 

 This mite of practice is cheerfully offered ; and I 

 shall thank any gentleman for a similar one, that 

 will be as useful to me. 



After my personal respects, I offer you my 

 hearty wishes for the success of the Farmers' Re- 

 gister. C. "W. GOOCH. 



Airfield , Henrico, July 6, 1833. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 



Infiiieiice of tlie Moon, 



On the influence of the Moon upon the Seasons, 



BY M. OLBERS. 



The Moon acts upon the Earth in a manner cer- 

 tain and demonstrable; for it enlightens our 

 nights, it draws the Earth a little from its elliptic 

 orbit, it occasions a small oscillation in the Earth's 

 axis, it produces the flux and reflux of the sea, 

 and an analogous but less motion in the atmos- 

 phere. But it has been the general opinion of 

 mankind, from time immemorial, that beside 

 these demonstrable effects, the Moon, according to 

 its different phases, exercises a considerable influ- 

 ence upon the weather, upon the health of man- 

 kind, upon animals, upon vegetation, and on che- 

 mical operations. Experience alone can throw 

 light upon this subject ; for it is possible that the 

 Moon may have an influence upon our atmosphere, 

 produced by the different forces of attraction which 

 it exercises at different times — and also by its 

 liglit. Long and well conducted experiments 

 have completely refuted such hypotheses; they 

 have proved, that neither the lunar phases nor the 

 situation of the Moon with respect to the Sun and 

 Earth, have scarcely any influence upon the wea- 

 ther, for no fixed relation whatever can be disco- 

 vered between them, notwithstanding the vast 

 number of trials and observations which have 

 been made for a great number of years. The re- 

 sults deduced from one series of meteorological ob- 

 servations, are always contradicted by another se- 

 ries ; we cite for example, Howard, who believed 

 he had discovered that the barometer rose most 

 frequently in the quadratures, and that its fall was 

 most common in the syzigies. Cotte, on the con- 

 trary, to whom meteorology is much indebted, 

 and who commenced in order to confirm the re- 

 mark of Howard, afterwards found by twenty 

 years observation, that the barometer was the 

 highest at the time of the new Moons, and lowest 

 at the time of the full Moons. Lalande and La- 

 mark have drawn from their observations the 

 most opposite results, respecting the effects of the 

 Moon in her passage by the plane of the equator. 

 But a decisive proof of the small influence of the 

 Moon appears to me to result from this circum- 

 stance, that this influence by whatever forces it 

 may be produced, known or unknown, ought to 

 be the greatest possible between the tropics ; how- 



