SOCIETY OF CENTEAL ILLINOIS. 317 



should be provided with these instruments or others of a similar 

 character. 



The influence of atmospheric electricity upon the development 

 of the vine is by no means insignificant, but at present we have no 

 means for securing numerical data for the expression of this influ- 

 ence. That the electrical tension always existing between the upper 

 air and the soil tends to stimulate the growth, appears from the ex- 

 periments of Grandeau at the Forestry School at Nancy. This 

 authority found that jilants protected from this influence were less 

 vigorous than those subject to it. But Macagno's experiments are 

 of more direct interest to the vine-grower. He believed that the 

 passage of electricity from the upper air through the vine to the soil 

 stimulated increased growth. To determine this he selected a cer- 

 tain number of vines, all of the same variety, and all in the same 

 condition of health and development. One-half of the lot, sixteen 

 vines, were submitted to experiment; the other half left exposed to- 

 natural conditions. A pointed i)latinum wire was inserted into the 

 end of a bearing cane, and to this was attached a copper wire, which 

 in turn was carried to the top of a tall stake near the vine. Near 

 the base of the same cane was inserted the platinum point of an- 

 other coi)per wire, which communicated by its other extremity with 

 the soil at the base of the vine. 



This arrangement was maintained from April loth until the 

 vintage. September 16th, and it was presumed that the vines so pre- 

 prepared were more subject to electrical influences than others not 

 so arranged. At the time of the vintage the wood, leaves and fruit 

 of both sets of vines were submitted to careful analysis. Without 

 giving all the results it is sufficient to say that the treatment seemed 

 to a very decided action upon the assimilative activity of the leaves. 

 The latter contained more of all the valuable elements of plant food 

 under the influence in question than without it, while the fruit upon 

 vines with conductors more than u])on the others. The following 

 figures will suffice to show the advantage gained: 



Witliont With 



Coiuiuctor. Coiifiiictor. 



^loisture, per cent 78.21 7'.). 84 



Sugar 10.86 18.41 



Tartaric Acid, free 0.880 0.701 



Bitartrate of Potash 0. 180 0. 186 



Thus we see that in the fruit not only is the proportion of moist- 

 ure greater, but the proportion of sugar is greater, while that of 

 undesirable acid is lower. 



While these are the results of a single experiment, and may not 

 find profitable practical application, they are of undoubted import- 

 ance, and show how much remains to be done by scientists and 

 meteorologists in the advancement of this great culture. 



