484 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The second difference is that the crops from electrified seed show a greater 

 weight per bushel, ranging from one to four pounds. This is very important, as 

 every one who keeps horses knows. It means the difference between a poor sample 

 and a mediocre sample. It means the difference between a mediocre sample and 

 a first-rate sample. It means the difference between a sample that can be used 

 only for milling and a sample that can be used for seed. It means better milling 

 quality, more flour, and less offal. 



The third difference is in the length of the straw. This is susceptible of actual 

 measurement, and it is found by measurement that the straw growing from the 

 electrified seed is from two to as much as eight inches longer than that growing 

 from the untreated seed. 



The fourth difference is in the stoutness and the strength of the straw. 

 75 culms of unelectrified oat straw tied up in a bundle measured 3f in. in 

 circumference. The same number of culms from electrified seed measured 

 4f in. — an excess of 26f per cent. 



From this follows the fifth difference, that the crop from electrified seed stands 

 better than that from unelectrified seed. After the thunderstorms at the end of 

 July, in field after field the electrified crop was standing upright, while the 

 adjacent unelectrified seed was, in large patches, flat upon the ground. 



The sixth difference is that the electrified seed tillers much more than the 

 unelectrified — that is to say, it throws up many more culms, [and therefore each 

 plant occupies more ground and produces more ears in the case of wheat and 

 barley, more panicles in the case of oats. Consequently, the same quantity of 

 seed produces a heavier crop, or a smaller quantity of seed may be used to 

 produce the same amount of crop. In one case — on the farm of Mr. Legg, near 

 Corfe Castle — 5 acres were sown with electrified oats at 3J bushels per acre, and 

 5 acres adjoining were sown with oats of the same sample, but unelectrified, at 

 4 bushels per acre. The produce of the electrified was a much thicker plant, 

 stouter and longer straw, more numerous and heavier ears of grain. 



These results are established. They are not uniform. Every crop does not 

 exhibit the same degree of contrast as every other, but practically every crop 

 shows a substantial contrast— much more than enough to repay the cost of the 

 treatment. The process is now past the experimental stage, and is become 

 established. It would be absurd to treat it as still uncertain when such results 

 have been shown on 2,000 acres of land of the most various quality in widely 

 different parts of the country. 



The rationale of the process is unknown. Whether it acts by stimulating the 

 energy locked up in the ungerminated seed ; or by the addition by ionisation of 

 ions that assist the growth of the seed ; or by destroying certain bacteria, or the 

 spores of certain fungi ; or by stimulating the growth of other bacteria or other 

 fungi ; or in some other way, is not known. Here is a most fertile field for investi- 

 gation, for at the present time we are feeling our way in the dark. It is found, 

 for instance, that, to obtain equivalent results, barley must be treated for twice as 

 long as wheat. Every kind of seed needs its own special treatment, which can be 

 determined only by a long and careful course of experimentation, extending, it 

 may be, over several seasons. For many seeds the correct mode of treatment has 

 not yet been discovered, and up to the present no result has been obtained ; but 

 there is every reason to suppose that results will be obtained in time. It is 

 evident that if the rationale of the process were known, this time might be very 

 sensibly abbreviated. Here, then, is a field of investigation waiting and clamouring 

 to be cultivated, and certain to achieve important results. 



