298 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



net is spread over the experimental plot, and by means of 

 uprights held at the desired distance above the growing plants. 

 At a convenient location is placed the electrical generating 

 device, one terminal of which is grounded by means of a metal 

 plate, while the other is connected with the wire net. By this 

 means waves are set up between the net and the ground upon 

 which the plants are growing, very much in the same way 

 that the same phenomenon is effected between the exciting 

 instrument and the antenna at the receiving station of a wire- 

 less telegraph outfit. 



Different results are reported by different experimenters, 

 but the latest work on the subject reports an increased yield 

 of corn of 35 and 40 per cent. ; of oats, 50 per cent. ; of straw- 

 berries, in one instance, 128 per cent. The yield of sugar 

 beets is put down at an increase of 42 per cent., while the 

 sugar content was at the same time increased by a fraction 

 over 2 per cent. "In the greenhouse the strawberries under 

 electrical treatment ripened in an average time of 30 days, 

 while 24 days more, or in all 54 days, was necessary for the 

 berries without the benefit of the electric current. The same 

 was the case with raspberries on the open field in Brotdorp, 

 though the difference of time was there only seventeen days. 

 The development of sugar has been stated in an analysis made 

 in France of white beets, giving an increase of about 18 per 

 cent, of sugar, to which the remarkable augmentation of the 

 sweetness of the strawberries, in the same place, is additional 

 evidence." 



The use of the wire net seems to preclude the application of 

 this method to any but the most limited areas, as in green- 

 houses, for example ; but there is a line of experiment that 

 we do not know of as even having been tried, which certainly 



