Litchfield enquirer., 1851-02-20
DivinatiOn, :

| an article by physician at Haverhill, a day or two since on the subject of witch hazel divining rods. A correspondent of the Commonwealth at Burlington, yt., writes that he has witnessed similar effects from the use of peach tree twlgs. We subjoin the material portion of his communication as follows: a, a.
 "In July, 1850, was travelling in Duchess county, New York, and enter ing one day into conversation with an intelligent farmer, Inc incidentally alluded to the powers of d.vination possessed by the twigs of the peach tree. depressed unbounded surprise, and being naturally sceptical. my unbelief, also. in the in stances he advanced to support his as. sertion. Upon which he unhssitatingly proposed to convince me by demonstra- tion. Proce ding to peaci, tree. he cut therefrom a forked branch in the form of aletter Y. and taking the two prongs in his hands. allowed the main one to point upwards. aGrasping them as tightly as possible, he commenced walk ing slowly in circait around his well. at the distance of abo1ta rod, occasion ally pausing for a moment. Presently I observed . quiveriag aaotion in the twig caused by .;shs.tesistaNcs offered tothe ldeesacsiOa of ths wasersby thsl tight grasp in which it was held. The twig. however, continued to descend with vibrating motion, until it pointed down. ward, in which position it remained per- fectly motionless until the man stepped back from the vein, when it quickly res sumed its position. This he repeated several times, each time increasing the radius around the well, and making the complete circuit without any movement in the twig. until he arrived at a pa,tic- ular line or direction from the we'll In each spot where the twig pointed down. ward, I stuck stake, and after several trials, we returned to the well, and found all the stakes leading in direct line to a high hill some distance off which we knew. to be the source of his we'll, from Inc fact that another fine we'll existed on the same line between him and the hill, discovered by means of the peach twig.
 He stated to me that no force with which the twig could be held in the hands, was sufficient to prevent its poin- ing downwards. when it was held over a vein of water, and that on a recent oc> casion to gratify his curiosity, he had held it so tightly that the twig turned in its own bark, so powerful was the attrac. ton. We made the same experiment with several other trees. but they all re mained passive. "vH
 When we had completed our experi- ments. the following questions were sug. gested to me. and which l noted down at the time, embracing. az you will ob. serve, the doctors idea of electricity.- Does this attraction result from any pe- culiar quality of the wood, or from an affinity of tho substances of which this species of wood and water are composed. Or is the attraction attributable to the existence of certain metallic or other substance peculiar to bed or vein of water? Or rather has not c!ectricitry or animal magnetism something to dc with it, inasmuch as in the hands of some the twig has potency, and in others i' remains stationary? It occurred to m' that the latter, and perhaps to some ex tent, the former causes would be found to explain the phenomenon when thor ough investigation should be made.-- That physical temperament has some thing to do with it I am convinced, fol in my hands it would not move, but when held in the hands of the other after satisfying myself that no imposi- ton was practiced, his fingers being still and closed tightly over tie twig. l took hold of one of the projecting ends with my thumb and fore finger as tightly as could, and distinctly felt by its move ment, that the twig was overcoming force in its desc ent. "