140 



IRISH GARDENING. 



44 



IRISH GARDENING. 



AN ILLUSTRATtD MONTHLY. 



55 



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Electricity in Plant Culture. 



THE application of electricity to plant 

 culture has often been the subject of 

 experiment. The directing- idea in most 

 of the earlier experiments was to increase the 

 amount of light available for purposes of starch 

 making, and thus, by raising the quantity of 

 manufactured food, force the pace of growth in 

 the crop. It has been shown, for example, that 

 lettuces maybe so forced, and that the flowering 

 period of Easter lilies and certain other plants 

 can be hastened under this artificial light treat- 

 ment. But the method as it stands at present 

 is not likely to be largely adopted by commercial 

 growers. 



Another idea put to the practical test by 

 experimenters was to charg-e the soil with 

 electricity by sending electric currents among- 

 the roots of a growing crop, by the use of sunken 

 metallic plates connected together by conducting 

 wires. But the trials gave little encouragement. 



A third idea with respect to " electro-culture " 

 was to charge the air with high-tension elec- 

 tricity in the vicinity of the growing plants ; in 

 other words, to imitate as far as possible the 

 atmospheric conditions that result in the 

 phenomenon of the aurora borealis. The pro- 

 lific crops of grass and grain obtained in the 

 short arctic season, and with poor cultural 

 treatment, suggested the influence of a factor 

 apparently absent in more southern regions. In 

 a recent article contributed to Nature (Aug. 

 6th) by Sir Oliver Lodge an interesting account 

 is given of experiments carried on along these 

 lines, first, at the Golden Valley Nurseries near 

 Bristol, and later upon a large scale at a farm 

 in the neighbourhood of Evesham. 



Before describing the experiment the writer, 

 who is, of course, one of the highest living 

 authorities in physical science, remarks that 



" It can hardly be doubted that the electrification of 

 the air has some effect on growing- plants. For it has 

 been found that under the influence of ultra-violet light 

 electrified plants can g-ive off electricity into the air from 

 the leaves : and the fact that the upper air is normally 



electrified, relatively to the soil, must cause all plants to 

 be electrified also, so that in all probability they are in 

 a constant state of slow electrical discharg-e which be- 

 comes more rapid when the sun is up. In what way 

 this discharg-e of electricity from their g^rowing- tips and 

 hairs and surface generally really acts must be studied 

 and reported on by physiolog-ical botanists, but it is 

 natural to suppose that it cannot be without influence, 

 and reasonable to think that that influence may be bene- 

 ficial — a hypothesis w^hich direct experiment confirms." 



The experiments therefore have for their 

 object the intensification or extension of natural 

 processes already operating to a greater or less 

 extent in our gardens and fields. The method 

 adopted is to run thin conducting wires sup- 

 ported on poles over the crops at a height not 

 interfering with the passing of loaded vehicles. 

 Every day for some hours high tension electricity 

 is switched on to the system, and leakage imme- 

 diately sets in. It is said that the stimulating 

 action of the electrification can even be felt by 

 anyone walking underneath the wires. The 

 whole power required for the nineteen acres 

 under experiment is supplied by a two-horse oil 

 engine. The crop experimented upon was 

 wheat, and the increase in bushels per acre of 

 Canadian Red Fife in the electrified over the 

 non-electrified area in 1906 was 40 per cent., and 

 last year 29 per cent. It is stated that the 

 electrified wheat samples were brighter and 

 better, and that the plants tillered more freely 

 than in the non-electrified control area. 



The results are most instructive, and we 

 await further developments of the system with 

 much interest. 



^W ^?^ 6^^ 



Announ'cement of New Books. — Messrs. T. C. and 

 J. C. Jack, of Edinburgh, intend to issue in seventeen 

 monthly parts an illustrated work entitled " Beautiful 

 Flowers and How to Grow Them," by Messrs. Horace 

 and Walter Wright ; and the Caxton Publishing Co. 

 are preparing a comprehensive and lavishly illustrated 

 •' Book of Nature Study " under the able editorship of 

 Professor J. Bretland Farmer, which will be published in 

 six volumes at 7s. 6d. each. 



^w ^^ ^w 



Silvery September. 



Ah ! grieve not when September 



Comes, with the wheaten sheaves, 

 And later winds dismember 



The Midas-fing-ered leaves ! 

 Be not for gazing- dumbly 



Upon the branches bared ; 

 Rise ! greet her, tall and comely, 



Blue-eyed and silver-haired ! 



She '11 give you for your ardour 



Rose moons above dun corn, 

 A white-sailed cloud-armada, 



Sun-tarnished fields new-shorn ; 

 And bid you to remember 



The Springfs as yet untold 

 Until the last September 



When we ourselves are mould. 



