270 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



was not covered with the composition was consumed, 

 while the other remained perfect and entire. The 

 cost of this process is very insignificant compared 

 with its great utility, being about two francs three 

 centimes per hundred square feet. The Iloyal Thea- 

 tre at Munich, has undergone this process, having 

 about four hundred thousand square feet; the ex- 

 pense of which was about four or five thousand 

 francs. — Pennsijlvania Cultivator. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOON UPON 

 THE WEATHER. 



There is no more extensively known and univer- 

 sally believed superstition, than that the changes of 

 the moon have some effect upon the weather. The 

 classic student finds traces of this belief in very early 

 times ; and years and observation seem rather to 

 have confirmed than to have shaken men's faith. 

 Virgil, in his beautiful songs for the husbandmen, 

 written before Christ was upon earth, thus gives the 

 signs of the new moon : — 

 " If when the moon renews her refluent beam. 

 Through the dark air her horns obscurely gleam, 

 Along the wasted earth and stormy main 

 In torrents drives the congregated rain : 

 But if (\inerring sign) the orb of night, 

 Clear, wheel through heaven her forth increasing light, 

 Rain, nor rude blast shall vex that hallowed day 

 And thus the month shall glide serene away." 



Another Latin writer, even earlier than Virgil, 

 says that "if the new moon have its upper horn 

 darkened, the last half of the month will bo rainy. 

 But if the lower horn be darkened, the first half of 

 the month will be rainy ; while if the middle be 

 darkened, the middle of the month will be rainy." 



In our day the popular maxim seems to be that 

 we may look for a change of weather at every change 

 of moon. 



It appears that there must be something to dis- 

 tinguish this from most other signs, or like them it 

 would have its day and be forgotten. It becomes 

 one, before he rejects it as altogether unworthy his 

 notice, to account for its having taken such strong 

 hold upon men's faith. We hear men every fcAV 

 days uttering their grave predictions concerning the 

 weather ; and, if you question their signs, they sol- 

 emnly assure us that many years' observation goes 

 further with them, than all our scientific scepticism. 



And there have been individuals, who, during the 

 greater part of their lives, have compared the changes 

 of the moon and weather. Toaldo, of Padua, made 

 these observations for forty-five years. Every 

 change of the weather occurring within three days, 

 either before or after a change of the moon, he 

 attributed to that change ; and that is about the 

 time generally claimed. He gives us, as the result 

 of these tedious calculations, that out of every seven 

 new moons, six were attended with change of weath- 

 er ; out of every six full moons, five were attended 

 with change ; and out of every three quarter moons, 

 two were attended with change. 



Others have made similar observations, and have 

 arrived at similar conclusions. Do we discover any 

 principle here ? Or how shall these remarkable 

 coincidences be accoinited for ? Let us see. From 

 the time of now moon till the time of new moon 

 again, is just about one month. During that time it 

 goes through its four changes. This makes its 

 changes occur at about a week's interval. Now, 

 allowing three days before and three days after each 

 change to be influenced by that change, and it will 

 leave but one day in the week inde^iendent ! 



Need we wonder, then, that out of seven new 

 moons six were attended with rain ? A much greater 

 wonder to me is, that sixty-nine out of seventy were 

 not thus attended. 



In reading the faithful observations of these pa- 

 tient men, I am sometimes reminded of the anec- 

 dotes travellers tell of the North American Indians. 

 Sometimes they suff"er severely from drought ; and 

 after having tried sacrifice and self-torture in vain, 

 they resort to one expedient, which they say has 

 never failed to be followed by immediate rain. Spurn 

 not to be taught by a son of the forest. The cere- 

 mony is simple ; any one can try it at his will ; and 

 my word for it, it will rain the minute he is through. 



One of the chiefs gets upon some high hill, or 

 upon the roof of a hut, and commences shaking his 

 fists at the clouds, shooting his arrows in the sky, 

 and defying the storm-god to afflict them longer. 

 When he gets tired another takes his place, and so 

 they keep it up, day after day, week after week, and 

 month after month ; and, what is most mysterious — 

 perfectly inscrutable — is, it always brings the rain ! 

 The clouds have to yield. The storm-god gives 

 over the battle. 



Should wc see such a performance going on in 

 one of our towns, we should pronounce it ridiculous. 

 But I am at a loss to know how much less ridiculous 

 to consider it, when I see a person step up to tho 

 corner on a rainy day, take down the almanac, and 

 very sagely remark, "Ah ! I see what made it rain 

 to-day. The moon changed three days ago," or else 

 " will change in three days," as the case may be ; 

 and that, too, when one minute's thought would 

 teach them, that not one hour of their lives is re- 

 moved by four days from some one of the moon's 

 changes. — Wright's Paper. 



ON THE PRACTICAL USE OF LEAVES. 



There are two facts in the functions of the leaf 

 which are worth consideration on account of their 

 practical bearings. The food of plants is, for the 

 most part, taken in solution through its roots. Vari- 

 ous minerals — silex, lime, alumina, magnesia, pot- 

 ash — are passed into the tree in a dissolved state. 

 The sap passes to the leaf, the superfluous water is 

 given off, but not the substances which it hold in 

 solution. These, in part, are distributed through the 

 plant, and, in part, remain as a deposit in the cells 

 of the leaf. Gradually the leaf chokes up, its func- 

 tions are impeded, and finally entirely stopped. 

 When the leaf drops it contains a large per cent, of 

 mineral matter. An autumnal or old leaf yields, 

 upon analysis, a very much larger proportion of 

 earthy matter than a vernal leaf, which, being yet 

 young, has not received within its cells any consid- 

 erable deposit. It will be found, also, that the leaves 

 contain a very much higher per cent, of mineral 

 matter than the wood of the trunk. The dried 

 leaves of the elm contain more than eleven per cent, 

 of ashes, (earthy matter,) while the wood contains 

 less than two per cent. ; those of the willow more 

 than eight per cent., while the wood was only 0.45 ; 

 those of the beech 6.69, the wood only 0.36 ; those 

 of the (European) oak 4.05, the wood only 0.21; 

 those of the pitch pine 3.15, the wood only 0.25 per 

 cent.* 



It is very plain, from these facts, that, in forests, 

 the mineral ingredients of the soil perform a sort of 

 circulation ; entering the root, they are deposited in 

 tho leaf; then, with its fall to the earth, and by its 

 decay, they are restored to the soil, again to travel 

 their" circuit. Forest soils, therefore, instead of being 

 impoverished by the growth of trees, receive back 

 annually the greatest proportion of those mineral 

 elements necessary to the tree, and, besides, much 

 organized matter received into the plant from the 

 atmosphere ; soils therefore are gaining instead of 



* See Dr. Gray's Botanic Text Book — an admirable 

 work, which every horticulturist should own and study. 



