Electricity and Plant Growth.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 3048, 10 August 1893, Page 2

Electricity and Plant Growth.

Recently the American Department of State issued the results of aa inquiry on ilie use of electricity in different parts of thp world as a power in driving farm; machinery and implement*, and in t£e propagation of plants, In addition to America there are only four countries where experiments hare been made with electricity in the direction in question : namely, England, Germany, France, and Belgium. The report state^that the late Sir William Siemens, at Sherwood with an apparatus consisting of i vertical dynamo'raachlne, a regulator pp lamp, and a throe-horse Otto g*s* engine, established the following con* elusions:—l. That eleotrio light w both efficacious in producing chloro« phyl in the leaves of plants, and in promoting growth. 2. That plants do not require a period of rest daring the twenty-four hours of the day, but make increased and rigorous progress if subjected during daytime to sunlight, ani during the night to electric %kt>. $, That the light is escaoious in hastening the development of powers and* fruit; The flowers produced by ita uA are remarkable for' intense coloring, and the fruit both for bloom and aroma. Tj>«.t tfje expense of 4e« peads mainly unon the cost of meohanica{ energy, and is' very moderate irheu natural sources of such energy, as water* falls, can be made available. At the Paris Exhibition" the coneeryatprjes wen lighted by electricity, and the gji^de^ thought 'the plants and flowers rgqq lighted had a more lively air than those dependent on gas or any other light than th« sun and moon. The lights were kept burning continually, and this perpetual light gave increased vigour to the nW« j bub the expenses, so it was affirmed, were greater than the results obtained, At? tempts have been made tq pays electr^ currents in buoke'ts whefe seeds ver| washed preparatory to sowing in order to destroy microbes invisible to the naked eye. It has been claimed that the germinating power of the seeds was thus increased. In Belgium and in England electricity has been successfully employed as a 'motor for threshing and dairy njach|ns^ 1? : l