The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-14
TOPEKA. STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. G.
VANISHING sUPERsTIrIoNs.


VANISHING SUPERSTITTONS.
Washington, d. c.. Jan. 10.-That
a farmer in this age of scientific agri-
culture should plant his beans in the
full of the moon, because he firmly
believes that if they were planted
when the moon is dark the pods would
not cling to the vines, seems almost
incredible. Yet this superstition, and
a host just as ridiculous are still cher
ished by some farmers in all parts of
the country. They are one of the
formidable difficulties which the
county agents and other champions
of scientific farming regularly have to
contend with.
1t should be said Immediately that
the farmers are really no worse in this
regard than city folk. If modern sci
ence and education mean anything,
they mean the death of superstition.
They mean that the individual will
look for rational cause back of every
effect. They mean the substitution of
skepticism for credulity. Just in so
far as we still believe in the mystical
and the supernatural, in matters
which may be explained on rational
grounds, just so far we are still saw
ages. And the beautiful young de-
butante who believes that she has a
dual nature because she was born I'M
der the geminal sign of the Zodiac is
no more civilized in this regard than
the backwoods farmer who believes
that the meat of a hog killed during
the moons wane is sure to shrink
when cooked.
/ Altho the farmers are not the orlzy
superstitious class, their superstitions
are more serious matter than those
30 or CO..
affect the production of food. Rural
superstitions govern such important
matters as care of sick animals, time
to plant crops, and how to set hens.
Tractors, the gasoline engine, and
government bulletins on agriculture
have suppressed to a great extent the
progressive farmers romantic tendeD-
cies. But, even so. the influence OF
ira dition and early training are strong,
and many farmers cling tenaciously
to the old saws"
Proverbs and superstition flourish
in any rural community where there
are farmers of the old school whose
fathers and grandfathers firmly be-
lieved the weather prophecies of the
almanac and told the children that
bluejays are always scarce on Friday
because they go to consult with the
devil
Many of the old weather proverbs.
to be sure, have a foundation of fact.
Take the advice, when oak leaves
are as big as mouses' ears plant your
corn" The idea back of this is that
the oak tree is one of the last to leaf,
and by waiting for the oak leaves the
farmer avoids planting his corn too
soon
The belief of the Pueblo Indians
| that for lightning to strike in a corn
field means a good crop is still held
IL.
sible to say whether the Pueblos read
any reason into this saying. Most
modern farmers merely accept it as a
superstitious belief Yet it has an ex-
PLANTATION, rather far-fetched, in that
| lightning accompanies rain, and rain
naturally helps the crops.
Many other proverbs have no effect
whatever aside from their picturesque
qualities. Such a one is the saying
that the number of snowfalls for the
winter can be told by the day of the
month of the first snow. Thus, il the
vember 10, subtract ten from thirty,
the number of days in the month, and
you find that there will be twenty
snow storms III your vicinity. This is
mere child's play, according to the
weather bureau.
Weather may be forecasted specifi-
cally thirty-SiX hours ahead, and in a
general way it is possible to predict
conditions for a week in advance. But
as for almanac prophecies printed a
year ahead, and weather proverbs
which attempt to reduce the weather
to simple formulate, the weather bu-
reau says that it is impossible for
such statements to be accurate.
In the class of irresponsible weather
proverbs come those which link sea-
| sons-As it rains in March, SO 1t rains
in June; as July. so next January;
u rT1Q nCfnhar- PnId EphrII9 xUar
January, cold May; and so on indefi-
nitely. These sayings are SO numerous
that practically every possible pair
! of months in the year is connected
by proverb, and in some cases the
ideas clash, so that il you are to be-
lieve in any, you must choose.
The We ther bureau states that this
combination of two months or sea-
sons grew from the belief that weather
occurs in regular cycles. This is a
half truth. Weather is ordinarily
distributed in short cycles of three
| days. 1t takes high" or dry wave,
about three days to pass over a given
place, and stormy periods are of APP
proXimately the same duration. From
this basis we get the adage. Three
! frosts and then a rain" which is as
likely to come, true as not.
Superstitions about the moon. almost
| without exception, have no foundation.
AAlS Is rather uuAOTtundle, as the
moon superstitions are the most num-
| erous and the dearest to the farmer s
| heart. Pliny, Cato, and other writer's
| assured the ancient Romans that oak
trees should be felled when the moon
is on the wane. and gave them other
advice relative to the proper use of
\ the moon in agriculture. Ever since
then. moon farming has been popular.
! Hens must be set ant potatoes planted
in the dark of the moon; sheep must
/ be sheared when the moon is bright.
| When the young moon is tilted SO that
one horn points upward, this is a sign
in some sections that the moon is
Observation-Disclosures
1.-The George N