182 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



plauks, paved at bottom with bricks, leaving holes for surplus vrater to 

 pass off; put in best soil, but no fresh duvg. Sow the nuts abont 5^ 

 inches deep, and the seeds about 1^ inches deep. The trench should hold 

 about eight or nine inches depth of earth. Cover the whole with an iron 

 net, with meshes so small that mice cannot get in. All agreed that thi* 

 sowing was best done in autumn. 



INFLUENCE OF THE MOON ON VEGETATION— A VULGAR ERROB. 



At a recent meeting of the Club, the influence of the moon on vegeta- 

 tion was mentioned, and placed among the obsolete notions of mankind. 

 Science repudiates it utterly. 



I now find in the May number of the Revue Horticole, of Paris, the 

 following article : 



" The spring rains retarded our vegetation, together with white frosts on 

 the 17th and 18th of April. The red moon accompanying the bad weather 

 certainement had nothing to do with it. The moon looked on our bad 

 weather. We wish to eradicate, if possible, from the souls of our gardeners 

 those rooted whims, which to them have become Articles of Faith ! " 



The majority of our farmers and gardeners are so confident of the influ- 

 ence of the moon — new or at the full — for planting, that they frequently 

 lose largely in their products by it. For instance, garlic, which we use 

 so much in the kitchen, they say will be larger if planted at new or full 

 moon, and produce five or six times more lobes. That beans, peas, pota- 

 toes, planted at new moon, will grow more vigorously; that a still better 

 crop comes if seed be planted at fiill moon. A great many have more faith 

 in the power of the moon than that of the atmosphere. 



We now repeat, that the experience of Quintinus, and, above all^ of 

 Duhamel de Monceaux, proved beyond all question that the moon had no 

 appreciable influence on vegetation. The experiments of Mons. Chanvalon, 

 in the island of Martinique, shows that there is no perceptible difference 

 between the plantings at any phase of tlye moon. Our late illustrious 

 friend, Mons. Arago, examined this question, and has stated (in his fine 

 notice thereof), fully, that this influence is imaginary altogether. He gave 

 us a couple of aphorisms as follows : 



" Do you want your cabbage and your lettuce to grow well, make double 

 flowers; Your tree;S give early fruit? Sow, plant, prune in the decrease 

 of the moon. 



" Do you Want your plants and trees io grow well and vigorously ? Sow, 

 plant, graft and prune in the increase of the moon. 



According to Mons, Auguste de Saint Ililaire, they say in Brazil : 



" Plant your cfarrots, potatoes, and some other vegetables in the decrease 

 of the mooti, but sugar cane, corn, rice and beans in the^increase," 



Pliny said, some 1700 years ago, " Plant beans at full moon and lentils 

 at new moon." 



