The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-05-03
ABOUT THE MOON.

Farmers Club of St Louis, A. the agricul
tural experience Of most Of its members cX
tend little beyond Il small patch of ground in
the rear Of Il city residence, the members have
e the advantage Of obtaining most of their facts
, by the aid of the imagination, and thus Illus
| tratr very common observation, that people
/, are always most cntcrtaing when talking
1 about things they know nothing about. At a
b. late meeting of this "high.toncd' debating
society the subject under discussion was the
moon. The reporter tells Us:
1t is questionable whether the moon ever
received such hauling from IA farmers cluL
: before in this latitude, If it had taken place
in the night the stars surely would have ial
len. Two of the members were evidently
moon struck.
PROF LUCE
Broke the ice by reading very serious essay
/ maintaining that Luna has something more
to do with us than merely to shine tor dogs to
bark at
After this matter of fact pcroration on a
subject which is decidedly vague this time OF
the year,
REV Z. =. POWELL,
Who is very cstimablc member of the club,
as well as pastor Of church in this city,
rose from solitary corner OF the room and
said:
Mr.. PRESIDENT: As an apology for ungal-
liant treatment of the moon question, last week,
| | wish TO give YOU the result OF certain eX-
periments that have made, don't rcmem-
Der just when.
| The question is one dear to science, and
| fairly stated is this What effect does the
| moon have VppptutiOn
| Now, sir, | started with this presumption:
| The moon can, and does, cause tides. ltpulls
the water up on an average of two feet all
over the globe. OF course, if she pulls water
so much, she can pull earth some, if she sets
to it. And argued there is no reason in the
world why she should not be able to pull such
"A tritle as "A turnip or a carrot Why, sir, |
have pulled turnips myself, and | am not
half so big as the moon.
You see it must be so. The moon is evil
IDENTITY the fowl that pulls the seeds out of the
ground and pulls the plants up little each
day, and makes them tall and if it were not
for roots it would pull them clean out of the
ground. SO you see the wise provision of
Providence in furnishing plants with roots to
hold on with. This business is to cOuntcraCt
the attraction of the moon. 1t stands to rea-
son, then, that il Il man plants in the path OF
the moon he gets the tull' moon power. But
if the moon is on the other side Of the earth,
the tendency is to pull things downward in
stead of upward. And SO | am convinced
some seeds are lost forever, unless they come
up some day in China. At any rate lots of
my seeds never do come up.
But will pass at once to my experiments
aforesaid
I. Beans: The effect on beans is remark
able. My memorandum says: Running beans
nrt HARM II, with - tbpu rot a
good start You must be sure and plant them
with their eyes in the direction you want
them to run. SO strong is the influence of the
moon on this plant that | am satisfied that
some of my beans last year having started in
the full Of the moon, were actually pulled in
to strings and our folks had to eat string
beans for several weeks after il. And some
Of my beets were actually pulled completely
out of the ground, and lay there looking as
soft and silly as such things do after election
time
Another experiment was to the following
effect | planted a bed Of watermelons. This
was the third day after the second quarter of
he moon, at just three seconds past six min
ltes past O'Clock. My reason for selecting
his time was, that the watermelon being a
uicy fruit, the moon, by point Of reasoning
would have the jucicst, most melting effect on
t just after she had taken two hours But
low, mark the result. ! could not perceive
my effect of the moon in the coming up Of
he seed or in the growth of the plants. In
Iced, sir, the experiment seemed to be of no
'alue to science whatever. The fruit was eX.
ellent, mutifold, beautiful. 1t began to ri
zen. For several successive nights clouds
ut off the moons rays. When suddenly, |
hnk it was JUST days after the full moon,
here came II cloudless night. The moon
hone with all its vigor; such night is rare.
v seen. You could have seen to read by its
light, if you had..added the insignificant tritle I
If a candle. The effect was marvellous. In {
he morning there was not single whole c
in the patch. There they lay, $
pitt open in "a thousand ways, the inner red !
,art seemed to have been absorbed, and moth J
ng left but the rind. Did you never imagine v
,ou could see a face in the moon, gentlemen /
Veil, never did that face look SO youthful, so
nischicvous and boyish as on that identical ;
vening | have seeds of those watermclons :,
or distribution. p
Perhaps the most remarkable result was 7
btaincd in the case Of the onion. | sowed a a
ew seeds every night for three weeks, getting i
p at II to do it. The result with those sOwn -
n the new moon were nothing to speak of, but v
his remarkable phenomenon occurred with r
hose Sown late, that is, Just as the third quar- :
te of those onions, and they were nine in
lumber, had the most astOnishingly bad d
reath ever smellcd. This lasted from one /
D three days. There were very remarkable 5
I orthern lights about that time and it may f
ave been that and not the moon, that had I
MS peculiar effect on the onions | shall not I
Eel satisfied without further trials. 7
About the cabbage can only say that you I
ant be too careful, for this vegetable, as YOU
now, has head on it, in which it differs -,
rom all other vegetables, which mainly run Il
D bottoms. Now, if you get this head turned II
vcr, sir, it is Il hopeless case have known =
cvcral cabbage heads To have been moon g.
truck
The effect of the moon on vegetation can y
hardly be exaggerated. Why, sir, planted
bed of turnips; now, by I'll the laws of ma {
urc those turnips should have rooted down II
5ut, the first | knew, they were rooted up Il
md that too, occurred while the moon was in
he tull