Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 152, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1918 — Moon's influence on Plant Growth Wholly Negligible, Is Belief of Scientists [ARTICLE]

Moon's influence on Plant Growth Wholly Negligible, Is Belief of Scientists

The old belief that the moon has some sort of influence on plant growth still persists in some farming ’sections. Some farmers, it is said, 'refuse to plant crops or to kill hogs unless the moon Is in some particular position. The influence of the moon on the growth of crops, or on other agricultural operations, has always been denied by scientific men. The following brief statement by C. F. Marvin, chief of the United States weather bureau, printed in the Rural New Yorker, shows what they think of the matter: “It is the general belief of scientists that the moon has no appreciable influence on temperature, rainfall, or any other weather element, or on plant growth. “Plant growth depends upon temperature, light, humidity and plant food (both in the soil and in the air), and its availability. Obviously the moon neither mellows the ground nor fertilizes it, neither does it alter the composition of the atmosphere; hence it affects neither the mechanical condition of the soil nor the kind or quantity of available plant food. “If the moon has any influence on plant growth, it would seem that it must exert this Influence through its light. Experiment, however, shows that when a plant is so shadowed that it gets only one one-hundredth of normal daylight, It grows but little better than it does in absolute darkness. Full daylight is about 600,000 times brighter than full moonlight; hence one one-hundredth of daylight, already too feeble to stimulate appreciably plant activity, is still 6,000 times brighter than full moonlight. The conclusion is that, even in respect to light stimulus, the moon’s influence on plant growth is wholly negligible.’’