i02 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



amid the songs of the meadow lark, prairie 

 hen, and many other feathered songsters, 

 make travel by no means monotonous. 



The social character of the citizens of 

 Kansas is a feature which will attract new- 

 comers and cause them to feel quite at home. 

 The stiff formality, so prevalent in the East, 

 is almost unknown liere. The honest, industri- 

 ous comer is heartily welcomed, and receives 

 all the necessary encouragement to become a 

 permanent citizen. But woe to the tramp, 

 the liquor guzzler and the thief, lu all my 

 travels through the State I met none of these 

 characters, knowing them to be such. The 

 latter, of course, can move in disguise, but 1 

 met an officer, with a span of fast horses, in 

 hot pursuit of law-breakers, and was then 

 confident of capturing his game, having 

 traveled 140 miles. 



Society is as good as in any other State. 

 The progressive spirit of the people of Kansas 

 has carried innovation upon the customs of 

 the older States, and instead of foUowiug in 

 the old ruts they are leading many of the 

 older States. For example, tne Stale Board 

 of Agriculture was organized years betore 

 that of our State ; and their museum, in the 

 Capitol at Topeka, would be a credit to the 

 old Keystone State. There are displayed 

 cereals and grasses in great variety ; some 

 from other countries. 



The botanical, entomological and ornitho- 

 logical departments are wellhlled, as also that 

 of native wild animals and reptiles. Textiles 

 and textile fabrics, fossils and minerals, be- 

 sides many other objects of interest, all make 

 up a display which much older States might 

 envy. The remarkable fertility of the soil, 

 with so small a percentage that is not tillable, 

 justifies its claim to become the leading agri- 

 cultural State in the Union. 



In fact, it is already established in wheat 

 culture, as the crops in 1878 was 32,0U0,UUU 

 bushels, which was above the yield of any 

 other State. The present crop, however, 

 will be a partial failure, evidently in conse- 

 quence of so large a proportion having been 

 plowed and sowed too late, amid extreme 

 drouth, followed by a severe winter and dry 

 spring. In corn products it will be first, as 

 soon as there is sufficient live stock raised to 

 make the crop marketable in less bulk. The 

 condition of the present crop appears better 

 than that of any other State through which I 

 passed westward. 



In pomology, the State will soon stand 

 among the first. At an altitude of 800 feet 

 above the sea level in the eastern, to a,000 in 

 the western part of the State, with soils well 

 adapted, its horticultural resources justity 

 these predictions, and especially when we 

 consider the results already attained in the 

 eas ern section of the State. The larger por- 

 tion of the State lying south of the 3yth 

 parallel, makes the season three to four weeks 

 longer than with us, and the winters generally 

 less rigid. An abundance of water is ob- 

 tained at a deptli generally averaging less 

 than thirty feet. Excellent buildmg stone is 

 easily obtained in many parts ot the State. 

 The question will then naturally arise, are 

 there then no drawbacks there to the actual 

 settler ? Certainly there are, but not so many 

 as are generally reported. Lack of timber 

 (except in the eastern part) is probably the 

 most prominent, but at the present rate of 

 planting it may become a well-timbered State. 

 In short, where we find permanent settlers of 

 six to ten years or more, the appearances are 

 quite homelike, and by no means so uninviting 

 as some writers would have us believe.— 

 H. M. E. 



[July, 



For The Lancaster Faemer. 

 THE MOON'S INFLUENCE. 



Editor Lancaster Farjier : In my 

 communication, published in the May num- 

 ber ot your valuable journal, in reply to 

 J. G., while giving some reasons for doubting 

 that the changes or signs of the moon have 

 any appreciable influence on the weather or 

 the growth of vegetation, I admitted that it 

 is by facts and experience, rather than by ab- 



stract reasoning or theory, that the question 

 in dispute must be settled ; and added : 



"If, however, J. G. can show by a series of care- 

 fully conducted experiments, by himself or others, 

 extending over a considerable space of time, that 

 ihe signs or changes of the moon have the effects 

 attributed to them, or any sensible effect on the crops, 

 then we will have to admit that he is justified in his 

 belief. Until that is done it cannot be expected that 

 intelligent agriculturists will generally adopt his 

 theory," 



To this call, or challenge, J. G. has not yet 

 made any response ; but another writer who 

 signs himself ''A Seeker after Truth,-" comes 

 to the rescue in the :June number of The 

 Farmer. Instead, however, of favorin" your 

 readers with the "series of experiments " I 

 asked for,he contents himself with givino-two 

 or three isolated cases, where, as he says', the 

 facts corresponded with the theory he upholds. 

 The first case he mentions is that of two post 

 fences he had erected, some thirty-five years 

 ago, on the opposite sides of a lane. One of 

 these fences was set when the sign was m and 

 the other, about two weeks later, when the 

 sign ivas down. A year or so afterwards he 

 noticed that the bottom rails in the former re- 

 mained up so high as to permit small pi<js to 

 creep under, while in the latter the fence set- 

 tled down so that the bottom rails touched 

 the ground. 



Tnis is the only fact "A Seeker" adduces 

 to prove that the changing signs of the moon 

 have the particular inttuence he here attributes 

 to them. Suppose he had ascertained a year 

 or so after the fences were built that one of 

 them was set in the morning and the other in 

 the evening, would it not be quite as reason- 

 able to conclude that it was the sun's ascen- 

 sivn and descension as the moon's, that held 

 one fence up and forced the other down y He 

 does not tell us whether they were both set at 

 the same time of day, or whether rains or 

 frosts had intervened, or whether the nature 

 of the soil was precisely the same on the two 

 sides of the lane ; yet from one single coinci- 

 dence he would have us to infer infallibly 

 that the moon and the moon alone was ac- 

 couutable for the difference in the level of the 

 fences. It may be said that many others 

 have had similar experience of the moon's 

 mtiuence on fences, &c., and no doubt such is 

 the tact. But all such testimony is utterly 

 worthless so long as each or all of the wit- 

 nesses have only to offer one or a few isolated 

 or selected experiments which make in favor 

 of their theory. In that way any theory, 

 however groundless, can be made to appear 

 plausible to those whose range of knowledt^e 

 and reasoning powers are confined within 

 very narrow limits. Give me leave to select 

 niy experiments, and I could prove to the 

 satisfaction ot one-half of the people that 

 exactly the opposite effects follow the changes 

 ot the signs from those now attributed to 

 them. 



But look at the absurdity of the belief, in 

 this case of " Seeker's " two fences. Did the 

 moon's influence cease to operate on them 

 after the first two weeks ? If the posts being 

 set when the sign was up were thereby pre- 

 vented from settling in the ground while the 

 sign continued up, what was to prevent it 

 from being forced down as soon as the sign 

 changed, so that after it had the full effects 

 of an alternate up sign and a down sign, the 

 force in one direction would neutralize that 

 in the other, and leave the fence just where 

 it would have been if the moon had had no- 

 thing to do with the matter ; and the same 

 with the other fence, that was set in the 

 down sign V I hope " A Seeker after Truth " 

 will show us how this is, if he can. 



When this writer assumes that an "amateur 

 farmer" must have plenty of leisure, he is not 

 altogether logical. Horace Greeley was an 

 amateur farmer, yet he led one of the busiest 

 lives of any man of his day. The respected 

 editorof The Lancaster Farmer is another 

 instance. And for my part I have generally 

 been kept quite as busy, at one thing and 

 another, as the average of practical farmers. 

 Nevertheless I found time to adopt "A 

 Seeker's" advice to some extent, even before 



he gave it. I have "honestly" tried quite a 

 number of experiments, at different times, 

 and made some observations in regard to the 

 effect of the moon's changes on the weather, 

 the crops. &c., and I am compelled to say that 

 I have not been able to discover that there is 

 anything in the sign theory wjatever. During 

 this very spring and summer I made a test 

 which a believer in the signs recommended to 

 me. by laying down bricks on a grass plot, 

 first wlien the sign was down and afterwards 

 when the sign was up, leaving them on each 

 occasion the same length of time and until 

 the sign changed. I repeated the experiment 

 several times, and I declare that I was entire- 

 ly unable to perceive any difference in the 

 settling down of the bricks or the deadness of 

 the grass under them, between those placed 

 during the up sign and those in the down sign. 

 Another of "A Seeker's " cases is that of 

 his killing briers lu a fence row by digging 

 them up on a particular day in August. ~ As 

 he does not say it was in any particular sign 

 of the moon, I don't see what this has to do 

 with the question in hand. But I have been 

 told by ))ractical farmers that briers will 

 always be killed by cutting them off in 

 August, without reference to the "sign." 



The case of the lady who ahvays trans- 

 planted her flowers when the moon was 

 passing through the sign of Libra, and there- 

 by kept them clear of insects (apliids), is the 

 last and only remaining one "A Seeker" 

 adduces ; and it may be allowed to pass with 

 the remark that as she never tried trans- 

 planting in any other sign, her opinion cannot 

 be regarded as very conclusive, especially 

 when it is considered that plenty of ladies 

 may be found that are never troubled with 

 aphids on their flowers, who pay no attention 

 to the signs when they transplant them. 



Now, a word about "A Seeker's" slur on 

 Dr. Lardner. This eminent scientist, it ap- 

 pears, once jj?'efZic<ecZ that steam power could 

 not be used profitably as a motor to cross the 

 ocean. And because he is proved to have been 

 mistaken in that opinion, our "Seeker after 

 Truth" would whistle him down the wind as 

 though he were a man of no account and not 

 worthy of belief wlien he relates facts that 

 have already transpired 1 If a man is ever so 

 mistaken in opinion as to what may happen 

 in the future, does that destroy his credibility 

 as a witness when he tells us what has taken 

 place in the past ? I beg leave to difler with 

 the illiberal critic who thinks so. But aside 

 from the conclusions of Dr. Lardner, what 

 has this writer, who so much despises his 

 opinions, to say of the fact related by him, 

 and which I believe has not been disputed, 

 that complete registers of the weather kept 

 throughout Europe lor fifty to a hundred 

 years show that there has been no correspon- 

 dence between the changes of the moon and 

 the changes of the weather. Also that a long 

 course of experiments have proved that there 

 is no foundation for the belief that trees 

 should be grafted, or timber felled, or vegeta- 

 bles planted, in one sign or phase of the moon 

 rather than in anotlier. And such appears 

 to be the unanimous opinion of all persons 

 of whom we haveany knowledge, thathave in- 

 vestigated the subject' carefully, thoroughly 

 and scientifically. Can the believers in the 

 potency of the signs point to a single man, 

 within the last hundred years, with enough 

 astronomical knowledge to calculate an eclipse 

 or the times of the moon's rising and setting, 

 who has any belief in their theory V If not, 

 how do they account for the remarkable fact, 

 that it is only those who are confessedly 

 ignorant of planetary laws and motions that 

 have correct notions ot planetary influences? 

 Chambers's Encyclopedia, a work of very 

 high authority, in its article on the "Moon," 

 speaks of the belief in the influence of the 

 moon's changes or age in respect to killing 

 animals for food, sowing seeds of various 

 kinds, &c., &c., as " a superstition " that pre- 

 vailed among the common people in England 

 in the seventeenth century ; from which expres- 

 sion it appears that the belief in question is 

 no longer held by any class of people in Eng- 



