The Science of the Soil 131 



Steaming the soil would have rather a different effect from burning. 

 The bacteria would be killed, but the organic material would remain; 

 but whether it would retain all its nitrates and other foods or not experi- 

 ment only could prove. 



Comparing the methods of growers who "sterilize" their soils with 

 those who do not, the latter produce at least as good crops as the former, 

 if not better, and without incurring further expense. Generally speaking, 

 if soils before use are well exposed to the action of the weather, and are 

 not afterwards overdosed with strong manures, they will continue to yield 

 excellent results. 



12. ELECTRIFYING THE SOIL 



From time to time scientists have turned their thoughts to the 

 question of electricity in connection with the soil and plant growth, and 

 numerous experiments have been carried out. The main object of these 

 experiments is to try to rob the atmosphere of nitrogen and convert it 

 into nitric acid, in the hope that plants will not only grow bigger and 

 better but much quicker than at present. The actual cultivation of the 

 soil itself on scientific principles does not appear to have been considered 

 in these experiments, all of which seem to aim at getting as much out 

 of the soil as possible without having recourse to physical labour. When 

 it is remembered that a man who digs 1 ac. of ground 1 ft. deep turns 

 over about 1340 tons of soil in 10 to 14 days (more or less) at a cost of 

 a couple of pounds, the idea of the "electrical" cultivator is apparently 

 to save this trouble and expense. 



Amongst those who have already taken part in electrifying the soil are 

 the French priests the Abbe Berthelon and the Abbe" Nolet, the Swedish 

 Professor Lemstrom, and, more recently, Sir Oliver Lodge and Mr. J. E. 

 Newman, of Evesham. Under the Newman-Lodge method as The Times 

 describes it "the wire is taken from the dynamo to a shed in one of 

 the fields which are to be electrified. This shed contains apparatus for 

 transforming the electricity to high tension, and also the vacuum valves. 

 The network over the crops consists of a kind of gridiron of wire, 

 supported from each pole with larger insulators than those seen on 

 telegraph poles. The poles are 70 yd. apart in the rows and 100 yd. 

 apart between the rows. The thick telegraph wire is extended down 

 the rows, with thin wire to encourage leakage at every 10 yd. The 

 thin wire is invisible 20 yd. off. There is a slight fizz, caused by the 

 electrical discharge, and in walking beneath the wires a slight sensation 

 may be experienced. At night there is some glow. If a wire breaks' 

 this does not often happen anyone picking it up would receive an 

 unpleasant shock; but though there are obviously possibilities of electro- 

 cution in the high-tension shed, there is no risk to life in the field. The 

 apparatus does not supply a tenth of an ampere. The apparatus can 



