Sir Daniel Hall 125 



sent out. The process is this. A pinch of seed is sprinkled 

 on a small sheet of soaking wet blotting-paper and put 

 into the germinator, a sort of oven in which exactly the 

 right degree of warmth is kept up. Within a few hours 

 or days a peep into the germinator will show that the 

 seed in bulk is all right if its representatives have ' passed 

 their exam.' and are sprouting gaily. Thus the exact 

 proportion of germination is ascertained — that is, how 

 many seeds in each hundred can be expected to sprout. 



Nearly thirty years ago Professor S. Lestrom, of 

 Helsingfors University, began experiments to find out 

 the effect of treating growing plants with electricity. 

 During 1902-3 he had experimental fields near Newcastle 

 in connexion with the Durham College of Science, in 

 Germany near Breslau, and in Sweden at Alvidaberg, 

 where he grew plants of different kinds under electrical 

 treatment. He came to the conclusion that strawberries 

 showed a considerable increase in yield under this treat- 

 ment, wheat a much smaller yet perceptible increase, 

 potatoes and beet still less. He declared that electrical 

 treatment was useful on well-tilled land, but of no value 

 on poor, unfertilized soil. 



Since that date many experiments have been made in 

 what is called electro-culture. In 1921 electrical stimula- 

 tion of plant growth was tried at Rothamsted. Currents 

 of fifteen thousand volts were passed over growing barley 

 on a network of wires suspended ten feet above the 

 ground. Similar experiments have been made at Salford 

 Priors, near Evesham, where a small grant was made by 

 the Board of Agriculture toward the cost of the apparatus. 



There are three ways of using electricity to help the 

 growth of plants. One is to sink plates in the ground and 

 gently shock the roots of the plants growing between 

 them. Lord Kelvin, hearing of this plan, smilingly sug- 

 gested that perhaps it was the turning up of the soil in 

 order to sink the plates that did the plants good. A 



