ELECTRIFIED SEED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20263, 24 May 1929, Page 18

ELECTRIFIED SEED.

RADIUM AND MANURES. Field tests carried out at tho Grafton Experiment Farm and Hawkesbury Agricultural College by tho New South Wales Department of Agriculture appear to prove fairly conclusively that electrical treatment of maize seed does not increase the yield. As a matter of fact tho plots sown with electrified seed in most instances yielded lighter than those seeded normally. Experiments in the use of radium for stimulating plant growth and crop production have been carried out for some years past in Italy by Professor Bioglio, of the Italian Society of Radium. The professor utilises the exciting action of, and emanations from, radium for the preparation of a special fertiliser, which, when broadcast over the land, encourages very early development and ripening of plants and also increases yields. So far, rice appears to respond most readily to the stimulant, plants maturing 10 days earlier and producing much more heavily than those not treated. Promising results are also said to have been obtained with other cereals. The treatment with the new fertiliser is reported to involve an expense of only a few shillings per acre.