CHAPTER X.
PLANTS AND THE WEATHER.
The influence of the weather on plants is an agricultural belief which
is firmly credited by the modern husbandman. In many instances his
meteorological notions are the result of observation, although in some
cases the reason assigned for certain pieces of weather-lore is far from
obvious. Incidental allusion has already been made to the astrological
doctrine of the influence of the moon's changes on plants--a belief which
still retains its hold in most agricultural districts. It appears that in years
gone by "neither sowing, planting, nor grafting was ever undertaken
without a scrupulous attention to the increase or waning of the moon;"[1]
and the advice given by Tusser in his "Five Hundred Points of
Husbandry" is not forgotten even at the present day:--
"Sow peas and beans in the wane of the moon,
Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon,
That they with the planet may rest and rise,
And flourish with bearing, most plentiful-wise."
Many of the old gardening books give the same advice, although by
some
it has been severely ridiculed.
Scott, in his "Discoverie of Witchcraft," notes how, "the poor
husbandman perceiveth that the increase of the moon maketh plants
fruitful, so as in the full moone they are in best strength, decaying in the
wane, and in the conjunction do entirely wither and fade." Similarly the
growth of mushrooms is said to be affected by the weather, and in
Devonshire apples "shrump up" if picked during a waning moon.[2]
One reason, perhaps, for the attention so universally paid to the
moon's changes in agricultural pursuits is, writes Mr. Farrer, "that they
are far more remarkable than any of the sun's, and more calculated to
inspire dread by the nocturnal darkness they contend with, and hence
are held in popular fancy nearly everywhere, to cause, portend, or
accord with changes in the lot of mortals, and all things terrestrial."[3]
On this assumption may be explained the idea that the, "moon's wane
makes things on earth to wane; when it is new or full it is everywhere
the proper season for new crops to be sown." In the Hervey Islands
cocoa-nuts are generally planted in the full of the moon, the size of the
latter being regarded as symbolical of the ultimate fulness of the fruit.