ELECTRICITY AND AGRICULTURE. 665 



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of atmospheric electricity is subject to marked retardation in its 

 development, so that the quantity of living substance in insulated 

 vegetation is from thirty to fifty per cent, less than the production in 

 free air. 



"The transformation of chlorophyllic protoplasm into glucose, etc., 

 appears particularly influenced by atmospheric electricity. 



" Flowering and fruit-bearing are subject equally to modification. 

 Electricity does not appear to favor the direct combination of the 

 nitrogen of the air with oxygen, nor with the hydrocarbons of the soil ; 

 but it exercises a remarkable influence on the nitrification of the nitro- 

 genized matters of the soil by the intervention of the plant as an elec- 

 trical conductor. Atmospheric electricity is, therefore, a preponderat- 

 ing factor in vegetable production." 



These considerations induced the writer to carry out a series of 

 experiments to ascertain the effect on vegetable development of a sur- 

 charge of electricity. 



It would appear, from the primary consideration of intensified 

 electrical conditions existing in tropical climates, that the more rapid 

 growth of tropical vegetation might be due to higher electrical force. 

 To the resident in tropical climes such a proposition would be beyond 

 the limits of theory, because of the constant observation of the great 

 development in vegetation during and immediately after a thunder- 

 storm. 



The experiments undertaken by the writer gave results that leave 

 no doubt that the growth of vegetation may be enhanced twenty-five 

 to fifty per cent, by the judicious application of electricity. 



These experiments consisted in placing upon two marble slabs, one 

 of which was carefully insulated, ten plants of the kind under trial. 

 On the insulated slab was raised an iron structure with depending 

 points, arranged to discharge into the atmosphere surrounding the 

 plants the electricity produced by an induction-machine at an esti- 

 mated potential of about four thousand to five thousand volts. This 

 arrangement and difference of electrical condition, other conditions 

 being the same, were maintained day and night for eight months, re- 

 sulting in unmistakable increase in the development of the surcharged 

 plants. The practical application of electricity to the hastening of 

 the development of vegetation is easy. Above the plants or among 

 them may be placed a number of metallic points on a framework 

 insulated from the earth. Wires carried by small balloons India- 

 rubber or collodion bladders filled with gas to a considerable eleva- 

 tion would collect sufficient of the electricity of the atmosphere, which 

 would be imparted to the points, and these would discharge slowly to 

 the earth, saturating the atmosphere in the neighborhood of the plants. 

 The cost of such an arrangement would be small, and that great ad- 

 vantages are to be obtained from it is undoubted. 



