LUNAR INFLUENCES. 473 



upon with the most undoubting confidence in its truth. Sauer, a superintendent of 

 some of these districts, assigns what he believes to be its physical cause. Ac- 

 cording to him the increase of the moon causes the sap to ascend in the lim- 

 ber; and, on the other hand, the decrease of the moon causes its descent. If 

 the timber, therefore, be cut during the decrease of the moon it will be cut in 

 a dry state, the sap having retired ; and the wood, therefore, will be compact, 

 solid, and durable. But if it be cut during the increase of the moon, it will be 

 felled with the sap in it, and will therefore be more spongy, more easily at- 

 tacked by worms, more difficult to season, and more readily split and warped 

 by changes of temperature. 



Admitting for a moment the reality of this supposition concerning the motion 

 of the sap, it would follow that the proper time for felling the timber would be 

 the new moon, that being the epoch at which the descent of the sap would 

 have been made, and the ascent not yet commenced. But can there be 

 imagined in the whole range of natural science, a physical relation more ex- 

 traordinary and unaccountable than this supposed correspondence between the 

 movement of the sap and the phases of the moon ? Assuredly theory affords 

 not the slightest countenance to such a supposition ; but let us inquire as to the 

 fact whether it be really the case that the quality of timber depends upon the 

 state of the moon at the time it is felled. 



M. Duhamel Monceau, a celebrated French agriculturist, has made direct 

 and positive experiments for the purpose of testing this question ; and has 

 clearly and conclusively shown that the qualities of timber felled in different 

 parts of the lunar month are the same. M. Duhamel felled a great many trees 

 of the same age, growing from the same soil, and exposed to the same aspect, 

 and never found any difference in the quality of the timber when he compared 

 those which were felled in the decline of the moon with those which were 

 felled during its increase ; in general they have afforded timber of the same 

 quality. He adds, however, that by a circumstance, which was doubtless for- 

 tuitous, a slight difference was manifested in favor of timber which had been 

 felled between the new and full moon contrary to popular opinion. 



Supposed Lunar Influence on Vegetables. It is an aphorism received by all 

 gardeners and agriculturists in Europe, that vegetables, plants, and trees, 

 which are expected to flourish and grow with vigor, should be planted, grafted, 

 and pruned, during the increase of the moon. This opinion is altogether erro- 

 neous. The increase or decrease of the moon has no appreciable influence on 

 the phenomena of vegetation ; and the experiments and observations of several 

 French agriculturists, and especially of M. Duhamel du Monceau (already al- 

 luded to) have clearly established this. 



Montanari has attempted, like M. Sauer, to assign the physical cause for 



this imaginary effect. During the day, he says, the solar heat augments the 



quantity of sap which circulates in plants by increasing the magnitude of the 



tube through which the sap moves ; while the cold of the night produces the 



opposite effect by contracting these tubes. Now, at the moment of sunset, if 



the moon be increasing, it will be above the horizon, and the warmth of its 



light would prolong the circulation of the sap ; but, during its decline, it will not 



rise for a considerable time after sunset, and the plants will be suddenly exposed 



) to the unmitigated cold of the night, by which a sudden contraction of leaves 



| and tubes will be produced, and the circulation of the sap as suddenly obstructed. 



If we admit the lunar rays to possess any sensible calorific power, this rea- 

 soning might be allowed ; but it will have very little force when it is consid- 

 ered that the extreme change of temperature which can be produced by the 

 lunar light, does not amount to the thousandth part of a degree of tho ther- 

 mometer. 



