ELECTRIFIED WHEAT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13749, 11 September 1908, Page 3

ELECTRIFIED WHEAT.

It is , thirty years since Lemstrom, the Swedish physicist, accidentally discovered that electrical currents had a stimulating effect on plant growth. Not a great deal of investigation has been carried out, on this subject, but Sir Oliver Lodge describes in the London News some interesting experiments, conducted -at Salford Priors, in which a wide extent of ground was subjected to electrical treatment. A field of About twenty selected. Poles were erected to carry the wires, and over the whole field was stretohed thin galvanised iron wires, supported by a Fe\r posts, in long parallel Spans. The wires were iust high enough to permit ordinary, field operations to be carried on without interference. Positive electricity was supplied to these wires from a ' dynamo, driven by a small oil engine, and a transforming and rectifying apparatus had to be used to maintain an even supply of current. THe current was supplied at a potential of about a hundred thousand volts, but to compensate for this high figure the quantity of current was small. The experiments were conducted in 1906 and 1907. Canadian Red Fife wheat and English White Queen were sown on the electrified ground, as well as on a similar plot not treated, and the results showed that that electrical treatment increased the production by 30 per cent or 40 per cent. There was no marked difference in the ears, but the electrified wheat was shrubby and sent up many stalks. Strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes and* mangolds all showed that they received substantial benefit from the electrical stimulus. Sir Oliver "Lodge says that the electricity was supplied during the day and stopped at night. He thinks that it is perlhaps harmful in. very bright sunlight, and suggests that the current ■ should be used all day dunhg'spring and during dull weather, but only in the. early morning during summer. The "fizzling" of the electricity from the wires is sometimes audible and a faint glow is visible in the dark. Walking under the wires one feels a light brushing sensation, like ttfat of a cobweb on the face. The cost frf the experiments, by the way, is not stated*