LUNAR HORTICULTURE.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 469, 18 June 1948, Page 16

LUNAR HORTICULTURE.

Sir.-May I impart some knowledge to your correspondent "Curious" who criticises the broadcast from 1ZB about sowing seeds in fertile periods? I am not connected in any way with these broadcasts, in fact I never hear them. Your correspondent will, perhaps, be surprised to hear that the advice as to sowing seeds is drawn from that source which he classes with witchcraft, namely astrology. He may be more surprised to learn that astrology has been practised and supported by men whose names carry more weight than even the New | Zealand Department of Agriculture, or | the Department of Scientific and Industrial! Research, or the Royal Society of’ New Zealand, which "Curious" appears to think are the last word in point of vuthority. A few of these noted men, mathematicians and philosophers, and astronomers, are Roger Bacon, . Dante, Galileo, Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Sir Isaac Newton, and very many more of the more modern scientists. If "Curious" wants proof of the effect of the moon on plant life, the results of experiments made by the John Innes

Institute which set out to prove that the moon had no effect on plant life, ended up by giving the most exact proof that there are fertile periods, when germination of seeds is greater than at other times. I also offer my humble contribution to knowledge on this subject, I experimented by sowing peas daily during a period before and after eclipses of the moon, in three separate seasons. The results were that peas sown on the day of eclipse gave, in one case, less than half the germination shown on other days, and in another case, not one out of 10 sown on the day of eclipse, grew at all, although the daily average for other days was five out of 10.

H. E.

LAWRENCE

(Stratford)_