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Show i . MOON SIGNS. I A southern correspondent writes us that in his neighborhood they had a dry season, short pastures and but little water for stock, and hence farmers farm-ers have been obliged to sell their stock at a sacrifice. He docs not understand un-derstand why farmers should ibe in such hard lines in that particular county in that part -of the country, while in other parts of the state and adjoining states the rainfall has been abundant. He wishes to know why it is, if the moon governs the tides and seasons, that in some sections of a ' state or county it rains and in other parts is as dry as powder. Has the moon anything to do with it? Most certainly not. The same moon shines in his county that shines in the coun-f coun-f ties where rain and crops have been ' abundant. This moon superstition '' dies hard. In an exchange wc notice a communication com-munication which expresses the views about the moon with which wc were quite familiar when a boy, and which wc condense simply to show what far- mens thought on the subject fifty and 'X sixty years ago, as follows: "Put in all grain in the light of the IT moon; also all vegetables and fruits that produce their fruit above ground; but plant everything that goes to root in the dark of the moon, preferably ' - in the last quarter before the new moon." This is the general principle. He further particularizes: "If you have a twenty-acre field, one half sowed! in the dark of the moon and the other half in the light of the moon, any man passing along the road when the grain is ripe can 1 sec the difference both in quality and light." He proposes another test, ins follows: fol-lows: "In making fences dig your post holes and place fence posts and nail on the boards in the light of the moon. The next spring they will be tipped to one side; but if you will dig the holes in the dark of the moon 1 the posts will stand straight. Simi- j larly, if you shingle half your house in he dark of the moon the shingles will lay flat and smooth; but those put on in the light of the moon will begin to turn up at the ends." Here is an easier test wlijehufhe gives: Place a-plank or flat' sandstone sand-stone on your blue gTass in the light of the moon and let it remain during the summer months. The grass under un-der it will turn a whitish yellow, but still grow; while if it is put on in the dark of the moon for the same length of time the plants will die, roots and all. He also avers that if the moon shines on edged tools it will take out the temper, and that if you kill a corn-fed hog or beef in the dark of the moon it will go to grease and shrivel up when you fry it and not be fit to eat; but that if killed in the light of the moon it will be nice plump meat. The signs of the zodiac also figured largely in our boyhood days. Wc have heard farmers aver that in planting plant-ing potatoes you must plant them in the sign of the scales; that surgical operations on the farmi .should! be performed per-formed when the sign was in the feet (mothers would not wean their babies by any other sign); that if you wanted to deaden timber you must do so when the sign was in the heart; and that if you wanted to quit smoking you could do it easily when the sign was in the feet, but with great difficulty dif-ficulty when the sign was in the heart or in the head. The interest in this article, wc think, will lie in the indication it gives of the agricultural advancement in the last half century. Wc observed, ob-served, however, even when a boy, that farmers who planted their grain by the ground instead of the moon, preparing the seed bed carefully and sowing good seed, generally had good crops, and that "moon farmers" had no better with the same preparation. Can it be that these moon signs arc a relic of the old worship of Astartc, or moon worship, that has come down to us from the Phoenicians, or possibly pos-sibly through our superstitious ancestors ances-tors in the forests of Germany? Isn't it about time we were studying soil physics and tillage, and letting the moon attend to her proper business of giving light by night?' |