190 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In February, seed of corn, beans, barley, wheat, oats, radish and lettuce 

 was treated with an inductive coil and sown alongside of seed not so 

 treated, but subjected in every other way to the same conditions. It was 

 noticed that the electrified wheat germinated about twelve hours ahead 

 of that not electrified, but other than this no difference was noted. 



ELECTRIC LIGHT EXPERIMENT OF C. W. SIEMENS, ENGLAND. 



(Condensed from the first Cornell bulletin on electro-horticulture.) 



In the winter of 1880-81 experiments were conducted in which a lamp 

 of 4,000 candle power was used, and it was placed inside a house of 2,318 

 cubic feet capacity. The light was run all night, and the arc was at first 

 not protected by a globe. The "results were anything but satisfactory," 

 the plants soon becoming withered. At this point a globe of clear glass 

 was placed upon the lamp, and thereafter the most satisfactory results 

 were obtained. Peas, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, melons and ba- 

 nanas fruited early and abundantly under continuous light, solar light by 

 day and electric light by night. The strawberries are said to have been 

 "of excellent flavors and color" and the "grapes of stronger flavor than 

 usual." The bananas were "pronounced by competent judges unsurpassed 

 in flavor," and the melons were "remarkable for size and aromatic flavor." 

 Wheat, barley and oats grew so rapidly that they fell to the ground of 

 their own weight. The beneficial influence of the clear glass globe was, 

 therefore, most marked. " The effect of interposing a mere sheet of thin 

 glass between the plants and the source of electric light was most strik- 

 ing. On placing such a sheet of cleair glass so as to intercept the rays of the 

 electric light from a portion only of a plant, for instance, a tomato plant, it 

 was most distinctly shown upon the leaves. The portion of the plant under 

 the direct influence of the naked electric light, though a distance from it 

 of nine to ten feet, was shriveled, whereas, that portion under cover of the 

 clear glass continued to show a healthy appearance, and this line of de- 

 markation was distinctly visible on individual leaves. Not only the leaves 

 but the young stems of the plants soon showed signs of destruction when 

 exposed to the naked electric light, and these destructive influences were 

 perceptible, though in a less marked degree, at a distance of twenty feet 

 from the source of light." 



In another series of experiments, Siemens placed an electric lamp of 

 1,400 candle power about seven feet above a sunken melon pit which was 

 covered with glass. The light was modifled by a clear glass globe. In 

 the pit seeds and plants of mustard, carrots, turnips, beans, cucumbers 

 and melons were placed. The light ran six hours each night, and the 

 plants had sunlight during the day. In all cases those plants "exposed 

 to both sources of light showed a decided superiority in vigor over all the 

 others, and the green of the leaf was of a dark rich hue." Heliotropism, 

 i. e., the turning of the plants towards the light, was observed in the 

 young mustard plants. Electric light appeared to be about half as 

 effective as daylight. Flowering was hastened in melons and other plants 

 under the glass. Strawberries which were just setting fruit were put in 

 one of the pits, and part of them were kept dark at night, while the others 

 were exposed to the light. After fourteen days, the light having 

 burned twelve nights, most of the fruits on the lighted plants "had at- 



