GERMINATION
DISTURBANCE
BLAMED
ON HALLEY’S COMET
As we collect the hundreds of
references and articles dealing with Halley’s Comet, we are amazed at the
variety of publications that featured cover articles on the comet (from
Railroad magazines to Religious Journals) and the recurrence of 1910 themes.
Take, for instance, the
well-circulated drawing from a 1910 German gardening magazine showing mushrooms
and flowering plants bursting through greenhouses while Halley’s comet fills
the sky.
We came across a variation on the same
theme as the lead story in FARMSHINE – a weekly newspaper for farmers and
agribusiness serving Pennsylvania and
neighboring states (March 28, 1986). And
unless your wits were about you, you would have believed that the story was NOT
tongue-in-cheek – but one that announced a major farm crisis in the U.S. –
because it was so well-written and accompanied by charts, photographs and
University backing!
Under a photograph of inverted corn
plants and accompanied by a map of the United States illustrating in color the
extent of the disturbance, we read “Germination disturbance alarming – Southern
farmers who planted their corn earlier this month are alarmed at finding their
corn emerging through the ground upside down.
An unusual celestial occurrence of no moon and the comparatively close
proximity of Halley’s Comet is blamed for the bizarre phenomenon. Much of the corn in states from Texas to
Georgia is growing with the roots up, as pictured above. Scientists are forecasting that Halley’s
Comet will disturb see germination throughout much of the United States this
year. The shaded area of the map,
below, depicts the areas to be most likely affected. Details are in a special report on page 24.”
The report, on page 24, bearing the dateline
of Terre Drole, Ga., is written by Dieter Krieg, Farmside Editor. Here are some of the alarming revelations:
“A vast majority of the 78.1 million
acres of corn which American farmers intend to plant this year may not reach
the harvest stage in the usual fashion.
That is the startling discovery of agronomists in several southern
states where corn was planted earlier this month…. The immediate problem now, however, is that corn is growing
backwards and ears may be forming underground this summer.
The germination problem was first
discovered in eastern Texas two weeks ago and was thought to be a local
problem. However, when plants in one
field after another emerged through the ground upside-down, scientists ruled
out local conditions, faulty planters, or poor quality seed.
Data has now been compiled at several
agricultural colleges in the South, with Georgia A & M University serving
as the center for pooling information and resources. The conclusion scientists have come to is that the strange
germination pattern is due to bio-magnetic disturbances caused by the passing
of Halley’s Comet.
The article continues: “Fields hit the
hardest were those which were planted when there was no moon. Scientists theorize that the absence of the
moon enabled Halley’s magnetic field to have a more pronounced effect on
Earth’s plant life…..
Many of the old-time farmers, who have
for years scheduled their plantings with respect to the phases of the moon, are
convinced that Halley’s Comet is to blame for the upsetting occurrence. No records exist, however, of Halley’s
having had similar effects during previous encounters with Earth. Astronomers say that’s because the Comet’s
path this year is far different than those ever recorded before in modern
history. Also, considering that the
Comet’s last flight past Earth occurred during 1910, and the time before that
was 1834, neither science nor communications were advanced enough to evaluate
and compare findings. It may be that
similar events took place in some regions of the planet during the Middle Ages
or earlier.
At any rate, Halley’s path in 1986 is
playing havoc with sprouting seeds – apparently disorienting them and sending
roots upward instead of downward.
Plants diagnosed so far at various
institutions such as Georgia A & M show no signs of abnormalcy other than
that they sprouted upside down. Stalk
formation appears to be normal and the underground leaves are apparently taking
on root functions. The gangly,
vine-like above-ground roots, on the other hand, are showing heavy
concentrations of chlorophyll, which has turned them very dark green in color….
While it is likely that this
upside-down germination is only temporary for the time that Halley’s Comet and
its billion-mile-long tail is close to Earth, some observers fear that the
phenomenon may signal an evolutionary process which might at some time become
permanent…..
One of the first farmers to notice he
had a serious problem in his field was
Billy Joe
Keinfeld of Plains County, Georgia.
“When I first done seen it, I reckoned maybe I had all my seeds upside
down in the planter,” the veteran sodbuster drawled in a true Southern
accent. He planted his corn on March
1. It came up[ a week later but it
wasn’t until another couple of days went by before Billy Joe noticed something
was wrong. “I blamed it on my wife at first because she planted it and she
never did no corn plantin’ before,” he explained. “She never could tell heads from tails nohow, so it seemed
logical enough. Well, then I figured
that couldn’t have been it because not even she could mess up an entire field
like that. Surely, she wouldn’t have
planted every seed upside down.”
The article quotes plant pathologist,
Dr. Winthrop C. Turvey (“Top” C. Turvey) of Georgia A & M University, as
predicting that someday we’ll be harvesting our corn with potato pickers
instead of corn pickers.
The article, which appeared in the
Friday, March 28, 1986 issue of the newspaper becomes completely understandable
when we get to the last paragraph:
“Halley’s is
closing in on us and even as it leaves again, remember it has a tail a billion
miles long. It’ll be quite a while
before we’ve seen the last of this strange phenomenon. On the other hand, it might all be over with
on the FIRST DAY OF APRIL. And then you
won’t have to worry about your corn coming up backwards.”
Editor’s
Note: We wish to thank Mrs. Roberta Shontz of
Vincentown, New Jersey, co-proprietor of a local family farm in Burlington
County, New Jersey, for calling our attention to the article from which this
story was taken.