PLANTING BY THE MOON
Sir,-The two letters in indignant rebuttal of "Simple Simon's" gentle and semi-whimsical lampooning of peculiar beliefs such as sowing by the moon and the destiny of the Jews, provide the interested bystander with Almost perfect illustrations of newspaper controversy at its most illogical and futile level. Emotional extravagances of indig« nation are no substitute for the persuas sions of logic and common ‘sense seasoned with a littlg humour when necessary. To attack a man’s character and cast ill-mannered aspersions on his cultural upbringing may provide the bystander with amusement, but contributes hardly anything more helpful te the discussion or the cause of truth. "Simple Simon" at least gives some ins dication as to his reasons for believing that the theory in question is untenable; H. E. Lawrence works himself up into an hysteria of acidulous verbiage, but does not bring forward a shred of evidence to show that his par ticular point of view has either logic or
scientific credentials to commend it, Some readers of The Listener no doubt are genuinely interested in the pros and cons of the subject. Let us have facts and scientific data (if such be available); and sweet reasonableness, instead of asperities; if someone differs from us, forbid that we should dub his opinion "ignorant prejudice" while atrogating to ourselves by implication the lordly title of Sir Oracle. Last year I listened to a horticultural lecturer who finished his education with some years at Kew Gardens, England, Presumably, his words would be something more than ignorant prejudice! He affirmed that after 600 experiments carried out to test the hypothesis under consideration; that is, the influence of the moon on germination and growth, no data could be adduced either way to support a decisive verdict. That lecturer may conceivably have been mise ‘taken; but his verdict had Kew Gardeng behind it as an authority.
L. GORDON
HANNA
(Eltham),
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 235, 24 December 1943, Page 3
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317PLANTING BY THE MOON New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 235, 24 December 1943, Page 3
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