The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1925-08-04
|cuINE OF THE MOON
MAKES GOOD PLANTS
rvpERIMENTS SHOW LUNA'S
LIGHT BEATS SUNSHINE. A
GOOD TIME TO PLANT.

GOOD LIME i ~ ILfAN
No seeds planted in the first quarter
D tbe moon terminate better than
o. Ian planted in the dark of the moon?
|H corple of years ago an English wo-
Miss Elizabeth S. Semmens, was
ll Ild nv an old gardener that this was
l1i' Ease saws the Manchester Guar
dian. :.4;,+ - ,,o,, 80 ,uo
man. Miss Semmens was endowed
ira double dose of curiosity, so
W.. gIs sct herself to find out if it were
sn' and second, if so, why? This tale,
S so' as we have told it, by DR.. E.
S1osson, he continues as follows:
MISS Semmens began by exposing
a4erent samples of the same seed to
unnonlipht and to sunlight, and she
invnd that more seeds terminated in
n,oonlit set than in the sunlit set.
This tri indicated that there might be
.onaetbing in the old idea. Anyhow
+ seemed worth investigating more
4 closely. DR.. Slosson goes on:
"a first thought the notion seemed
4 absurd for moonlight is half a mil
h ion times weaker than sunlight, so
bow could it be more effective in slim
ulating plant GROWTH
"Besides, moonlight is sunlight, for
tbe moon shines only by the reflected
ravs of the sun. Has the sunlight un-
derpone any change in quality by be-
mo reflected from the moon besides
being diminished in quantity? In one
respect it has, though nobody ever
thought it made any difference. Re-
Aected light is polarized. Light con-
ssts of vibrations across the line Of
sight.
How 1t Works.
"If we look at a lamp on the other
side of the room the light waves in the
raw coming to us move up and down,
right and left, and all the angles in
between. But if the ray of light is re-
Elected in mirror at a certain angle
part of the vibrations, say the side
wise movements, are quenched, and
the ray of reflected light consists most
" of vibrations in one plane, say up
and down. Such light is called polar
lied, because the vibrations have po-
larity, that is, motion to and fro in one
line of direction. The eye cannot tell
the difference between polarized and
ordinary light, and we do not like to
think that plants are brighter than we
are in any respect.
But we have to admit that there are
some things that paint can do and
we cannot One of them is the build
ing up of starch out of glucose, which
the plant accomplishes with ease, but
which we are not yet wise enough to
do.
The reverse process, the breaking
down of starch, we do in our glucose
factories, where thousands of tons OF
cornstarch are turned into syrup. This
is accomplished in the factory by soak
in e the starch in warm water and add
ing a little acid The plant gets the
same results by using, instead OF acid,
minute amount of a ferment called
diastase.
Experiment With Starch.
In order to see if polarized light
had any effect upon the digestive pro-
cesses of the plant Miss Semmens
placed some grains of starch IN
weak solution of diastase on micro
scope slide and threw upon it beam
OF po1arized light, using mirror in
stead of the moon for rejecting the
ray, because it is handler to handle.
Another slide of the same sort was
exposed to ordinary diffused sunlight,
most not polarized, and third was
kept in the dark. The starch was ac-
lively attacked and dissolved under
polarized light; very slowly in the or
binary sunlight, and not at all in the
dark The temperature was too low
for the starch to dissolve under ord1-
nary conditions.
The progress of the process could
be made plain by treating the slide
with two well-known reagents. A drop
OF tincture of iodine will turn starch
dark purple. Glucose treated with an
alkaline solution of copper salt Will
throw down metallic copper as
bright red powder"
When Miss Semmens announced
her results they were received with
much surprise and considerable scep-
tcism Nobody had ever seen such an
effect by polarized light But in spite
Of the incredulity of experts she went
on with her work.
She has now proved that polarized
light thrown upon a living Leaf Will
stimulate the dissolution OF starch
grains just as it does on a glass slide.
Now when the insoluble starch mole
cule breaks up it splits into two mole
cules of glucose. Increasing the num-