ELECTRICITY IN AGRICULTURE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12615, 18 November 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

ELECTRICITY IN AGRICULTURE.

Exeperiments aro now being 'conducted in London to test the capacity 'of a machine recently invented by a Swiss scientist. It is claimed — first/ that seeds can be electrified so that they germinate in a few hours; secondly, that all sorts of diseases cap be destroyed in a number of farm plants ; and, thirdly, that seemingly dead seeds can be revived. Successful efforts have been made, it is alleged with cotton seeds and with the destruction of phylloxera in the French vineyards. The machine, which weighs nearly a ton, consists largely of 'a com*bination of devices for turning \on at will both high and low ten-ion electrical currents. These currents are directed on to the seeds, which' aro placed on flannel between two plates, the under one copper, the upper zinc. There are also poles, some $ft in height, which -aro used for imparting the electricity to s the soil! A secret, which the inventor will not. disclose, is the watering bf tho soil with a life-giving fluid named "regenerator," one constituent of which* isjfore^ ed into the plant by the electricity, and which is of -such potency that it stimulates the plant to rapid growth and destroys all fungus and other pests.