ELECTRICITY ON CROPS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 91, 11 January 1919, Page 10

ELECTRICITY ON CROPS

v SOME OBSERVATIONS IN.ENGLAND. According to an English paper, some 2000 acres havo been sown with electrified -wheat. Returns are not yet to hand; but during the'growing period it was noticed that seed hiul stooledv'lt better, was longer in the straw, and " the ears bigger and better filled'. It was ■.anticipated that an extra yield of'from eight to 12 bushels per acre would be harvested. Extensive experiment? have been carried ■ out in the United States. Over a two-acre field a network of sprinkling pipes, 50ft. part and 200 ft. long, was constructed, high enough above tlie - ground to permit of horse-cultivation, and these pipps were crossed by copner wires, attached to insulators on the top of, gas-nipes. set in concrete. A current '. of JO,OOO volts was supplied by machinery, "and distributed by short ai-ms to the Ttynnjdine-pipes. ■' The' electricity wa" "carried into the soil bv the water, and the result, with a varied lot of sarden , . .'.and farm crops, was that in nearly everv .?'is" the plecti-ified plants rinened a fo7+Dicht earlier than untreated nlant*. Tf this nrincinle makpc irood in further .practical tests, .in Giposland, in Tas-.-.ina.nja, and in New where cheap jwafer-power is available, there should be . great .scope ; foT .-.future, development;