By Dr. Bruce Smith ——Bio and Archives--April 1, 2024

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This week week marks a new occasional column theme for my postings on Americas Free Press/Canada Free Press. A dear friend and confidant suggested that there be some attention given to the old ways of doing things, in order to pass them along to the next generation. It’s a terrific idea, and here’s the first installment.

Upon our return from a journey to New England recently, it being the first day of Spring, I paused to check my setting for due east. My arrangement isn’t exactly a scientific instrument, but it gets the job done for me. The two stainless screws in the top of the white post are oriented toward the spot on my horizon where the sun peeps above the horizon on March 21st and September 23rd. On those two days in the northern hemisphere, the sun rises exactly in the east. As the earth orbits around the sun, from March 22nd to September 22nd the sun rises north of due east. From September 24 to March 20th the sun rises south of due east. You can set your calendar by it. It’s uncanny.

The directions on the compass rose have long been an interest of mine because I have farm ancestors. When I was still very small I remember my farm grandfather and my dad talking about storms coming in from the west. The Swindell place was east of my grandparents’ farm in Henry County. Town was north. Lewisville was south. Knightstown was southwest. As I rode in their car moving west toward the farm and the setting sun with my grandparents one afternoon, my grandmother pointed out how the crepuscular rays of the sun were drawing water through the broken clouds from the earth below. She passed that lore along to me in a magical moment I have never forgotten. The sun sets in the west.

Farm folk must know where east is for farming, gardening, setting trees, getting about, predicting the weather, building buildings, and a host of other reasons. Where the sun will play early in the morning is important for crops of all kinds. If there are trees about, it’s important that they don’t rob crops of needed sunlight with their shade. In the garden, we orient rows for drainage purposes but also for sunlight. Some crops like a bit of shade during the heat of the day but some can’t tolerate it. Corn and pole beans and sunflowers are tall. Carrots and spinach and bush beans are short. We try to plant them in the best places because we consider the points of the compass........

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