STIMULATING PLANTS.

Mataura Ensign, 26 September 1913, Page 5

STIMULATING PLANTS.

INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS BT ELECTRIC - TELEGRAPH COPYRIGHT. TIMES—BYDNEY SUN SPECIAL CABLES. Received September 26, 8.30 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 25. Interesting experiments are being carriedl out at Dumfries (Scotland) in regard to increasing plant growth bj means of mercury vapor lamps and also mixing radio-active material in the soil. Carrot® which were influenced by ultra-violet rays germinated in 11 hours instead of 20 Sours, and 57 strawberries increased their bearing by 25 per centum under treatment, while flowers gave increased foliage and bloom'.

A long succession of ingenious experiments have been privately made in the effect of electricity upon growth both of plants and animals. It is now possible to say with some approach to confidence that startling results have been reached in one direction <stated a recent English ** Eeyoiid all question young poultry respond to electric stimulus, applied in a particular way, with astounding ranidlty. They surpass the best on record in speed of growth at the time of year, they keep tSieir health in crowded conditions, and become almost independent of the season. In the south of England, on the biggest poultry farm in the world, an experiment of this nature has just been . ompleted. Eight hundred chickens, in/ two equal groups of 400) were nurtured on the intensive system, that is in flats, almost trays, one above the other. One group of 400 was treated by this electric system, and so charged were the chickens fnth electricity that the shock could be distinctly felt if the finger was put to "the beak of a chicken. The chickens in this 400 grew to a marketable size—that is, as "ipetits poussins" —in five weeks, and of the 400 only t,ix, and those were weaklings in the beginning, died. Of the other 400 nearly half died—it being late in the year for healthy growth—and the survivors took three months to reach the marketable size. This experiment followed other experiments in. which similar though not so striking results were obtained. Trials on a yet larger scale are being prepared, and tihisi is at any rate a reasonable hope that an instrument of real value in the intensive production of food lias been found.