t
and positive experiments for the purpose of testing this question, and
has clearly and conclusively shown that the qualities of timber felled
in different parts of the lunar month are the same. M. Duhamel felled a
great many trees of the same age, growing from the same soil, and
exposed to the same aspect, and never found any difference in the
quality of the timber, when he compared those which were felled in the
decline of the moon with those which were felled during its increase: in
general, they have afforded timber of the same quality. He adds,
however, that by a circumstance which was doubtless fortuitous, a slight
difference was manifested in favor of timber which had been felled
between the new and full moon, _contrary to popular opinion_."

SUPPOSED LUNAR INFLUENCES.--It is an aphorism received by all gardeners
and agriculturists in Europe, remarks the same author, that vegetables,
plants, and trees, which are expected to flourish and grow with vigor,
should be planted, grafted, and pruned during the increase of the moon.
This opinion, however, he thinks is altogether erroneous; for the
experiments and observations of several French agriculturists have
clearly established the fact that the increase or decrease of the moon
has no appreciable influence on the phenomena of vegetation.

This erroneous prejudice prevails also on the American continent. A
French author states that, in Brazil, cultivators plant during the
_decline_ of the moon all vegetables whose _roots_ are used as food, and
that, on the contrary, they plant during the _increasing_ moon the
sugar-cane, maize, rice, beans, etc., and those which bear the food upon
their _stocks_ and _branches_. Experiments, however, were made and
reported by M. de Chauvalon, at Martinique, on vegetables of both
kinds, planted at different times in the lunar month, and no
appreciable difference in their qualities was discovered.

There are some traces of a principle adopted by the South American
agronomes (farmers), according to which they treat the two classes of
plants distinguished by the production of fruit on their roots or on
their branches differently; but there are none in the European
aphorisms. The directions of Pliny are still more specific: he
prescribes the time of the full moon for sowing beans, and that of the
new moon for lentils. "Truly," says M. Arago, "we have need of a robust
faith to admit, without proof, that the moon, at the distance of two
h