luence of the moon upon
the life of a farm still persists vigorously: thus as Pliny (H.N.
XVIII, 75) counselled that one wean a colt only when the moon is on
the wane, so it will be found that the moon is consulted before a colt
is weaned on most American farms today: for that may be safely done,
says the rural oracle, only when the moon's sign, as given in the
almanack, corresponds with a part of the almanack's "moon's man" or
"anatomic" at or below the knees, i.e., when the moon is in one or the
other of the signs Pisces, Capricornus or Aquarius: but never at a
time of day when the moon is in its "Southing."]

[Footnote 89: Modern agricultural chemistry has contradicted this
judgment of Cassius, for the manure of sea birds, especially that
brought from the South American islands in the Pacific, known
commercially as Peruvian guano, is found on analysis to be high in the
elements which are most beneficial to plant life.]

[Footnote 90: Seed selection, which is now preached so earnestly by
the Agricultural Department of the United States as one of the things
necessary to increase the yield of wheat and corn, has ever been good
practice. Following Varro Virgil (_Georgic_ I, 197) insists upon it:
"I have seen those seeds on whose selection much time and labour
had been spent, nevertheless degenerate if men did not every year
rigorously separate by hand all the largest specimens."]

[Footnote 91: Cicero (de Div. II, 24) records a _mot_ of Cato's that
he wondered that an haruspex did not laugh when he saw another--"qui
mirari se aiebat, quod non rideret aruspex, aruspicem quum vidisset."]

[Footnote 92: This process of propagation which Varro describes as
"new" is still practised by curious orchardists under the name
"inarching." The free end of a growing twig is introduced into a
limb of its own tree, back of a specimen fruit, thus pushing its
development by means of the supplemental feeding so provided. Cf. Cyc.
Am. Hort. II, 664.]

[Footnote 93: _Alfalfa_ is the Moorish name which the Spaniards brought
to America with the forage plant _Medicago Sativa_, Linn., which all
over Southern Europe is known by the French name _lucerne_. It is
proper to honour the Moors by continuing in use their name for this
interesting plant, because undoubtedly they preserved it for the use
of the modern world, just as undoubtedly they bequeathed to us that
fine sentiment known as personal honour.

Alfalfa was one of the standbys of an