/"■2 THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



The electrified tomatoes ripened their fruit eight days accelerated growth and accelerated germination to be ex- 



before the others. Another French experimentalist, plained? There are numerous agencies which act as 



Abbe Nollet, appears to have been the first to prove that stimuli to seeds and plants about which little is known as 



the application of electricity to seeds hastens their germ- to how they stimulate. 



mation. The value of the electric light in hastening the "Some of the theories pertaining to electrical action, 



blossoming period of plants was first brought into notice however, jaossess interest and are worthy of being men- 



by the late Sir Wilham Siemans, who used it with great tioned. Frecke held the idea that electricity vvas the 



success U]3on flowering plants and fruit in his own green- great moving force of animate creation, and identical 



houses. with nervous influence. Marat was of the opinion that 



The subject therefore naturally divides itself into the electricity exerted a marked influence upon soil fertility. 



direct use of the current applied to the soil in which the The action of electricity upon oxygen, as is well known, 



plant is growing, and the use of the electric light as a gives rise to ozone, and some botanists have believed 



substitute for the sun in cloudy weather or at night. Ex- that the production of ozone in the seed is the prime fac- 



periments along both these lines have at a comparatively tor in accelerating germination and growth." 



recent date been carried out by the Massachusetts and For the greater part of two centuries, therefore, elec- 



other agricultural exjierimental stations in this country, tro-culture has been the subject of experiment and al- 



In these experiments it was found that electricity ex- ways with more or less successful results. During the 

 erts an appreciable influence upon the germination of past year the question has again been pushed to the front 

 seeds, and 55 per cent, more germinated in forty-eight by the experiments which have been carried out in 

 hours than those not subject to the current, this being France, upon which an interesting article appeared in 

 the average of five species; but it was found that the ap- the Larouse Mensiiel (Paris) for March, 1914. 

 plication of electricity does not increase to any appre- The writer describes an apparatus called a geomag- 

 ciable e.xtent the total germination, nor does it. as .some netifier, an invention of Lieutenant Basty. which is 

 have claimed it does, awaken to life seeds which have formed of a metal rod terminating at a point composed 

 lost their vitality. The experiments with the direct ap- of an alloy which is both a good conductor and non- 

 plication of electricity to plants in growth were all sue- oxydizable! The length of the rod varies, according to 

 cessful in raising larger crops, and in the case of toma- the plants cultivated, from one to two yards, and the end 

 toes they ripened earlier. The following shows the ef- is buried in the ground to a depth equal to that normally 

 feet of various electric currents upon the growth of rad- attained by the "roots. The results announced are very 

 ishes. The duration of this experiment, which was car- encouraging and confirms those obtained by previous 

 ried out at the Massachusetts station, was thirty-nine experimentors. in obtaining a shorter period of germina- 

 'l^ys. tion, reduction in the time of reaching maturity and a 

 Treatment. Total per cent, gained, much larger yield than under ordinary conditions. Thus, 

 Direct current: one cell; copper-plate electrodes. . 74.07 spinach sown March 21 and subject to the action of the 



Direct current ; one cell ; wire electrodes 23.15 geomagnetifier, germinated March 31, was gathered 



vVtmospheric electricity; copper-plate electrodes... 53.61 May 15, and gave a much better yield. Other plants 



Copper and zinc-plate electrodes connected 182.38 from the same sowing not electrified did not germinate 



Interrupted induced current : copper-plate elec- vmX.\\ .April 8, and were not ready to gather until nearlv 



trodes 13.83 in June, while the _\-ield was only a quarter as much. In 



Unelectrified plants were taken as the standard in cal- ''i*= '^^''^ of strawberries the fruit ripened earlier and was 



culating percentages. larger m size. 



The atmospheric electricitv was obtained by means of ' '^ course, this apparatus although given the above 



a pole extending thirty-five feet above the ^round on the '"§'i soundmg name dilifers nothmg m pnnciple from the 



top of which was projected twentv-four small copper ™^^^^^ "^^d m the eighteenth century and many times 



points distributed in two circles, the outer one havino- a ^'"'-"^ ^>' experimenters for the purpose of collecting at- 



radius of thirty inches. The copper points were all con- '"osphenc electricity. One point which these latest ex- 



nected with a single copper wire leading to one of the pemnents have brought out which is entirely new is that 



copper-plate elecVodes, the other electrode being P^'^"^* '^^''^'"e rendered immune from diseases due to mi- 



grounded. The strength of the currents used in this ex- cro-organisms. In the case of potatoes while diseased 



periment upon radishes varied from 05 to 1 milliampere Rubers were prevalent in field, a portion electrified con- 



A series of similar experiments were also carried on ^^™^^ scarcely any. A plot of beets was artificially in- 



with lettuce, giving the following results : fected with what is called m the article "a serious and 



'"^ . ' . injurious contagious disease," the name, however, not 

 •vT , ' '^l T f I being given, and the electrified portion received no dam- 

 Treatment, iNumber current total ^^^ '^n the case of potatoes the non-treated part con- 

 ot m milli- percent. Gained a considerable greater number of diseased tubers, 

 plants. amperes. gained. jj^j^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^j^^ ^,-jj^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^i^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^.^^^^ ^„^ 



Direct current (weak)... 94 0.184 22.78 bv the promoters of a system for electrically treating 



Direct current (stronger) . 46 0.367 40.76 sewage that by running 'the sewage over metal plates 



Copper and zinc plates... 48 0.214 36.48 charged with liigh voltage electricity, typhoid and other 



Atmospheric electricity .. . 47 not taken 39.22 di.sease germs were ab.solutely destroyed and the effluent 



.\mong the remarks accompanying the report of these could with safetA- be then discharged into a stream. The 



experiments it was stated, "The effect which electricity expense of this process was, however, too great too se- 



has in accelerating the germinating of seeds and the cure its adoption, 



growth of plants is positive, and in hundreds of experi- The Journal of the Board of Agriculture (England), 



ments conducted in different manners we have seldom Vol. XX., contains a report of some experiments with 



obtained any negative results. We have, moreover, con- potatoes at Dumfries, Scotland, during 1912, which fully 



clusively proved that the alternating current is much su- confirms the benefits of electricity in plant growth. 



perior to the direct as a stimulator. \\'hile there is without a shadow of doubt a funda- 



"The question naturally arises, in what manner does mental basis for the theory that electricity is capable of 



electricity stumulate plants, or, in other words, how are decomposing certain plant foods existing in the soil and 



