The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1821-1823, 1822-10-30
From the Hampshire Gazette.l
On the Influence of the Moon.

y
ence attributed TO the moon, in agricul-
ture and other concerns. While the
sun, "the powerful king of day. whose
genial influence is SO important and in
dispensable in vegetation, is little re-
garded, homage is paid to the moon
little short of that alteration offered to
it by our remote pagan ancestors, the
Saxons, who reckoned it among their
gods.
The Almanack is searched, and the
signs, so called, most carefully attended
to, by many farmers, in conducting the
various branches of agriculture, and in
many of the concerns of domestick life,
Nothing is undertaken without consult
ing this oracle-the phases of the moon
are diligently noticed-and heat and
cold, rain and drought, are supposed to
be dependent on its changes. We are
pleased to observe that that venerable
patriot, the Hon. Timothy Pickering,
has seen fit to notice these popular
prejudices, this reflex of Pagan idola-
try.
The following are Mr.. Pickering's
remarks, published originally in the
Massachusetts Agricultural Repository.
4" Having noticed the folly of re-
garding the moon in relation to the
time of sowing peas, | add, that the
idea of IFS influence in any other ope-
rations in husbandry, ought TO be dis
carded. 1t is mischeyous supposition,
kept alive by tradition, and countenanc-
ed and supported by the idle remarks
and representations in Almanacks.--
The figure of a man marked with the
signs, and the representations of the
weather, ought to be expunged; and
every well-disposed Almanack maker
would Danish them, if he knew the in
juries they occasion, by misleading the
farmer in any branch of rural economy.
| once heard some farmers speaking of
spreading manure on grass land in the
spring, say very graVely, that it should
not be done when the horns of the
moon were turned upwards, for then
the manure. instead of sinking into
the ground, would rise with the grass,
aud do no good. On the contrary, they
mentioned one farmer, who would not
set up his worm fence when the horns
of the moon pointed dowhwards, for
then the stones placed under the an
giles of the fence, would sink, and the
lower rails touch the ground and rot
And an industrious farmer in another
State told me he had slaughtered fine
heifer calf, which he wished to have
raised, because it was dropped in the
dark of the moon. Ii had not wit
messed these facts, should have hardly
thought it possible that such ridiculous
notions could have been entertained by
any persons who claimed share of
common sense. Even the changes of
the weather, so generally supposed to
be influenced by the phases of the
moon, have been found, by long course
of observations, to happen at all peri
DDS of the moons appearance indiscrim-
inately. This fact, which your father
mentioned to me 90 years ago, was re-
peated to me by the gentleman who
had noted these observations. We're
it otherwise, he remarked-did the
moons influence determine the wealth
er, then should not this be fair or foul,
at the same time, in all the countries on
the globe 2"
A laughable error occurred in po-
etical communi cation in a late New
York paper.
" Fired his warm brain,'
was made to read
S Fried his warm brain"
The composition, we suppose, was
thinking less Of the muses. than his din
ner, and probably had in his mind some
new-fashioned mode Of cooking calf's
head. [ViI. Record.
Ingenuity,-A person named Samuel
Rodgers, living in Maurice River Town
ship, in this county, has woven Shirt,
in all its parts complete, without a
seam. 1t is said the wristbands, shout
der-straps, collar, and even the button
holes, are so ingeniously worked, that
it is not necessary to apply the needle
to any part of the shirt. Let the ladies'
look out, or they may soon find our in
genious mechanicks superseding them in
the use Of the needle.