PLANTING IN THE MOON. 59 



planted iu the new of the moon while those whose 

 edible part is below ground should be planted in 

 the old or decrease of the moon. 



Auguste Saint Hilaire states that in Brazil, culti- 

 vators plant during the decline of the moon all veg- 

 etables whose roots are used as food; and that, on 

 the contrary, they plant during the increase of the 

 moon, the sugar-cane, maize, rice, beans, etc., 

 which bear their food upon their stalks and 

 branches. Experiments at Martinique to test this 

 belief showed that there was no foundation for it. 

 Nevertheless, I have met this belief in the United 

 States more frequently perhaps than any other, 

 and it doubtless owes its vitality and uniformity of 

 statement to the dash of philosophy in it which 

 makes it easy to remember. Many a gardener has 

 lost a good chance for sowing his onion seeds by 

 thinking that when he has failed to get them sown 

 in the old of the moon in March he must wait until 

 the old of the moon in April. This belief in the 

 necessity of planting root crops in the old of the 

 moon, and all others in the new, is somewhat mod- 

 ified in the case of certain crops which are likely to 

 be injured by too vigorous a growth. 



Dr. Lardner stated some fifty years ago that 

 it was an aphorism received by all gardeners and 

 agriculturists in Europe that vegetables, plants and 

 trees which are expected to flourish and grow with 



