CROPS BY ELECTRICITY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14328, 19 October 1910, Page 6

CROPS BY ELECTRICITY.

HOW TO ilL\I;-F f'ORN | CUCUjIBEEc. \ Kkctnvuy as e short cut to liatvcU v. !; . the £i..hi.:t ■ cf (~ lecture at the HJoi-ticuh-nn!! Hall recently bv Mr ,1. 11. !'-ie-tl-,. le-.-lnrer in bnr-or.-m liri-Mol rnivo,.. ; ;u. ~. bo descril.Ml i the etieei. oi eleeineal discharges on plant gidulh. With a number of lantern slides he traced the progress of experiments since 1700, one of the earliest forms of aparatus being an electrical spray drawing its suply of electricity front the atmosphere by means of a species of lightning-conductor. Another (plaint iilustration was that of a gardener with a watering can standing upon a small insulated platform mounted on v. iieols. The lecturer explained thai, ili.l gardener was not immune from electrical shocks while spra\iug the plants with electriiied water. Plants absorbed eieeiricity, providing it «as distributed in the air above them in the form of a sli-l.t. discharge. A recent practical of this tliseoverv uas ina'de. bv ail A merii-aii ollieer who. io California!', held ma'imcuvres. ear, it.i a portable form of wireless apparatus, which he placed agi,ii..-.r- a tall tree, ami collected and transmitted liie messages through 1 the medium of ilie branches of the tree instead of the usual The lecturer referred to a series c.f j experiments made outside Bristol,' and j also at Eye.-hain, where Air j. New- j man I tad electrified about twenty acrer, wheat-land with notable success. By mesus of a smali cug.no and dynatno, in thi' absence of a local electricity trai;.s'»i'.i.ed to the field by wins, and there, in a suitable outhouse, tin- current underwent a change to 'high tension thi-ouc.il the medium of Sir Oliver ledge's induction coil. The current was then circulated over a. sort of barb. (1 wire arrangement abovo thp 1 plants, each of the barbed points acting I as a distributing point for the electric fluid. i The general improvement effected in plant growth, as shown by the experiments, repi'eceiitc.l 'l'.) per eo'r.t. increase i '2~i per cent, in strawberries. Slmil.irly I wei-e' that' there 'was' "Viii ' appreciable ! | increase of nitrates i-i the soil so treat- i