Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-04-04
SIGNS FOR The FARMER
Old SuperstiiOns Confirmed By Sci.
tifiC Observations
Wild GROWTHS kND PLANTING TINE

Wild GROWTHS End PLANTING TINE
PhenoIoey Now Important Guide to
Good AsricuIture-careful Raeords
Have Been Made of Index Forms In
Nature.
You have heard them say-the old
farmer in the neishborhood where you
were brought up-that when the little
late, stunted cocklebur weeds an inch
or two high began to mature their
burs, it was time to get the late crops
under cover because frost would be
along In a few nights. The catkins
on the maple trees had something to
do with early gardening. The women
used to watch the blackberry blossom
had something to do with planting
beans, didn't it? And either the open
ing of the elder berries fixed the time
it was sowing turnip seed, or 1t may
have been harvesting the early onions.
That says, the New York Times is
what you thought, perhaps. 1t Is what
a great many thousands Of people have
thought. All those "superstitions'
did not fit In with the little bit of
cocksure science that every boy and
girl learned in school. 1t was mere
ly something for well meaning ole
fogies to putter around with and for
well-informed people to smile at.
Comes now the department Of agri-
:ulture and says that such lore Is not
superstition and never was;> that it is
not useless and never was; but that. on
the other hand, 1t Is and has always
been one Of the most accurate aids
possible to the right sort of agricul-
ure. Here is the opinion, in the Ian
.,uage Of A. D. Hopkins, one Of the
worlds leading scientists, now with the
Properly recorded and correctly In
terpreted there is nothing perhaps 10
equal records Of the dates Of per.
iodical events in plants as indices to
the bio climatic character Of a place or
local area, because such events are In
direct response, not to one or few,
but to all the complex elements and
factors of the envirnment which no
artificial instrument or set Of instru-
ments yet available will record"
Index Plants.
What that means, in plain language,
Is that there is a best time for every
farm and garden operation, and that
9ome trees or shrub or plant indicates
that best time more accurately than
all the scientific instruments. can pos
sibly register it.
The only restriction is that this ma
ture lore with relation to crop be "pro-
perly recorded and correctly inter-
preted." The "superstitions" that you
smiled at were all the while the basis
of very useful and very exact science
only nobody had even systematizec
It.
"Very little specific study" says DR.
Hopkins, has been made in this coun-
try of the subject of index plants to
determine their relation to different
periodical events in farm and garden
practice, especially with reference tc
the relative value Of different species
and varieties as to the constancy OF
their periodical responses to seasonal
influences year after year. Therefore
it is apparent that among the sub
jects requiring thorough systematic
that Of the relation o.
to agriculture Is among the
most important"
You see, this system that the ola 10
ries followed was the science OF phen-
1t was not scientifically
got together. "Phenology" means the
science of phenomena. No human
being has ever yet known 1t IN its
completeness. Many hundreds OF years
ago a wise man, though probably an
unlettered one, picked up bit OF II
here and there and practiced 1t ane
told 1t to his children and they prac-
ticed 1t and in turn told it to their
children. So 1t came slowly down b!
ord of mouth through many genera
tons, with accreditions here and there,
every generation adding little, but
ZACH generation likely to confuse ane
wrongly apply what it had inherited
from the preceding generation. Some
of it's results may have been wron'
eoause men failed to remember ac'
,urately or to apply properly what
their grand fathers had told them or
what they had learned for themselveF
but, on the whole, it doubtless has
worked beneflcially, and now begin
ming is made toward converting 1t in
to an exact science.
You probably have no idea Just how
scientific the thing is. 1t Is all full O.
such terms as chronological merid-
ians," "bioclimatic law" "isophanes,"
theoretical time constant" 1t abounds
in such equation as "isophane 44b-s4f
quail 10 isophanesx4 equal 40 days
later" 1t involves plated curves,
graduated diagrams, and world map
with zigzag lines running through
them. It is the most mathematical
geographical, and biological super
stition" you could imagine.
Hessian Fly Started II.
The Hessian fly may be said to have
started it ALL It's depredations were
such that it was necessary to SOW
wheat so late that the Hessian fly
would not ruin it and yet early enough
that it would get start before very
cold weather. The department OF
agriculture undertook to establish
system of planting dates for every Sec
ton of the United States In which
IL