PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 159 



moon theory, believe also in the signs. The moon's influence on animals 

 and humans is in exact accordance with its right ascension in the heavens, 

 beginniirg at the head and going to the feet as it passes eastward through 

 the signs of the zodiac. Now I wish to warn all believers in such non- 

 sense, before they wean their calves or babies, before they meddle with 

 their pigs or lambs, to look in the right kind of an almanac for the moon's 

 place or sign, for your pigs and lambs will all die unless you are sure the 

 moon's sign is not at the precise time in the heart. In Wright's Indian 

 Vegetable Pill Almanac, calculated by Samuel Hart Wright, of Dundee, 

 Yates county, N. Y., in which planets and pills are all mixed up together, 

 and the sun enters Pisces on the 20th of March, and the moon's place is given 

 among the constellations of stars, for thousands of years ago, M^hcn ancient 

 astrologers placed dragons and serpents, goats and bears, up in the heavens, 

 'twas then the signs and stars were included in the same space in the hea- 

 vens. But since then by the precession of the equinoxes the stars or con- 

 stellations have moved forward one whole sign. Now reader, you who be- 

 lieve in the moon theory under consideration, if you look in a large share 

 of the Almanacs of S. H. Wright's calculation, you will find the moon's 

 place one whole sign behind, as given in Aijer's Cherry Pectoral. Probably 

 the pills affect the planets and produce upon them a physical effect, and 

 for that reason they are behind their proper place all summer. In Wright's 

 Fill Almanac Jupiter is in Virgo all summer, while in Ayers Cherry Pecto- 

 ral Almanac it is in Libra during the same time. What almanac do yoa 

 generally look to for the moon's place ? Do you understand that the moon 

 points and sends his arrows, or vents his spite from the constellation Leo, 

 or from that part of the heavens known by astronomers as the sign Leo, 

 at the heart of babies and calves just weaned ? If not, your credulity and 

 the almanacs will deceive you. Will pork shrink or swell when boiling, 

 according as it is well corn- fatted, or as the moon is waning or enlarging 

 at the time of killing, without regard to fattening ? One of my neighbors 

 who believes in signs and wonders, (and spirit rappings, too), says if I lay 

 a large flat board over the young growing grass, at the time of new moon 

 in May, the grass so covered will not turn yellow, but stay green all sum- 

 mer; but if you cover it at tSe time of full moon in May, it will turn yel- 

 low and rot in three weeks, and he believes this against the demonstration 

 of experiment. He also believes the earth is flat, and the sun, moon and 

 stars go round, and yet he believes in signs." 



"Yours for the cause of truth." 



LTpon this a spicy debate arose. 



Mr. R. H. Williams, though not exactly prepared to believe all the signs, 

 could not readily give up some of the ideas imbibed in early education 

 about the planetary effects upon the earth. He wanted to know why it 

 was that we invariably see a change in the state of the atmosphere as 

 soon as the sun crosses the equinoctial lino, and why it was that we 

 alwaj's have a storm at that time, generally followed by fi-ost, q,nd if 

 frost does not come then, it is usually put off another lunar month. At 

 tlie equinox, he said, we always feel the change of the weather, that sun> 

 mer is gone and autumn come, though summer weather may follow after- 

 ward. 



