ARTIFICIAL . SUNSHINE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 14061, 16 May 1906, Page 6

ARTIFICIAL . SUNSHINE.

Some very interesting experiments with electricity as a substitute for sunshine have been

conducted in the neighbourhood of Evesham. The idea is not altogether new, because eloctrichy has been used occasionally for forcing indoor plants. But the Evesham experiments are being tried for the purpose of promoting the growth of cereals, and it will be some time, -of course, before definite reports of success or failure can be made. Tho electricity, which is generated by a dynamo driven,.by a three horse-power oil engine, is transformed to a high-ten-sion current and discharged from wires suspended sixteen feet above the earth from poles placed one hundred yards apart. The conductors being carefully insulated, the current goes to earth through the crops, which are growing under the wires. This substitute for sunshine will, it is claimed, lead to an increase in the yield of grain of 25 psr cent, with a corresponding increase in the straw. The authorities on agricultural chemistry do not speak very hopefully of the experiments. Dr Augustus Voeleker, consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society, is frankly sceptical. “ This application of electricity to growing crops might certainly have the effect of pushing on the growth of fruit and vegetables,” lie says, “but I cannot see bow it would liberate and provide more nutriment to them, and that, after all, seems to me to be tho chief consideration. It is, perhaps, a new idea to pass the through the air. I have also seen in the neighbourhood of Alnwick, wires fixed to posts in such a way as to intercept the electric current produced by thunderstorms. In Northumberland tire strawberry season is later than it is in the South of England, while round about Aberdeen it is later still. Except in cases like these, I dc-nbt the practical value of increasing the growth of fruit in this manner. As for the application of electricity for the growth of cereals, the coot must militate against its practical usefulness. The hope that this country'eould produce as much wheat as she consumes could hardly bo realised. You would have to grow wheat with an ear half as' big again as it is at present.” Dr Voeleker thinks that the money would be better spent sending people from Great Britain' to countries where wheat grows plentifully without artificial aids.