PF0CEEDING3 OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 195 



and began to work between the rows of carrots, and got good crops. The 

 most of the growth is after the middle of July, and by that time the oats 

 can be taken off. 



Mr. P. T. Quiun said the best time to sow carrots was from 28th of May to 

 the 10th of June, upon clayey soil, and earlier upon sandy ones. The yield 

 of a good crop is 500 to 800 bushels per acre; but none, I think, have pro- 

 duced that this year, as there is a general failure. They are worth now 

 *i5 cents a bushel. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — I planted my carrots last season in June, they 

 did not begin to grow until July ; I raised one of the best crops grown in 

 Westchester county. I think we in general plant our carrots too early. 



Influence of the Moon. 



Mr. E. B. Harris, Glendale, Ohio, There is nothing I read with more 

 interest than the proceedings of the Farmers' Club, and have been particu- 

 larly interested in the discussions concerning the moon's influence upon 

 plant and vegetable life. The affirmative and negative on the question 

 display their respective characteristics ; the former declaring their belief 

 in the moon theory simply because it is so; the negative ridiculing the 

 yery idea of such a thing. A blind faith is an excess on one side, and a 

 blank disbelief on the other side ; but between those who so implicitl}^ and 

 those who so stoutly and sometimes flippantly deny an earnest seeker 

 after truth has not found a very formidable array of reasoning on either 

 side. To assert a thing is true because I believe it, and my father and 

 grandfather believe it before me, is not truth, but tradition; and also to 

 pronounce a thing absurd because I do not believe it, is presumptuous 

 ignorance ; for know as much or as little as I may, ' there are more things 

 in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in my philosophy.' 



"In this controversy certain facts liave been lost sight of which it 

 would be well to recall. The empirical notion entertained by certain 

 astronomers of the utterly lifeless waste of the moon's surface has been 

 exploded. This idea of the moon's negativeness obtained credence by 

 denj'ing the existence of an atmosphere around the moon, consequently 

 denying also the existence of water and organic life from our satellite. 

 This theory led to the denial also of heat in the lunar rays, from all which 

 flowed a multitude of errors. 



" But Melvin and Knox have proved by exact observations that there is 

 heat in moonshine, and Zanladeschi has measured its effects upon the mi- 

 mosa ; while an English scholar has demonstrated that the earth is colder 

 in the first quarter of the moon than it is in the second. Again, moonshine 

 exerts a wonderful influence on plants. Light enables them to absorb 

 carbon from the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, and this is their daily 

 work. They sleep at night, except when the moon wakes them up, and 

 sets them to work again. So the farmer is right when he sows his seed 

 just before the full of the moon, for the plants come up about the time of 

 the new moon, and pass their infancy under the dark nights. But when 

 the full moon conies, its light sets them to work, and this process continuea 

 night and day, while the contraiy course is injurious to the tender plant, 

 which requires sleep. It is a common saying among sailors that the moon 



