CHESHIRE CHEESE. 



149 



Scale, 2 Feet to an Incli. 



From the London Ag. Gazette of June 21, 1&45. 

 Electro-Culture. — A late number, contain- 

 ing a statement of your mode of supplying the 

 electric fluid to plants, appearing to you as good 

 an arrangement as that wliich I, after much and 

 years of thought directed to the subject, adopt- 

 ed, and which has been since promulgated, will, 

 I hope, be a svifficient excuse for giving some 

 of the reasons why it is not as yet with j-ou at- 

 tended by beneficial effects. Both the north and 

 the south end of the wire suspended and collect- 

 ing the electric lluid ought to be in metallic 

 communication with the buried wires, otherwise 

 the circulation of the electricity is intercepted, 

 or nearly so, for I find that the comer.s of my 

 plots do not affect the magnetised needle simi- 

 larly ; thus, although the south end of the sus- 

 pended wire attracts the south pole of the needle, 

 and the north end of the wire the north pole of 

 the compass-needle even at some distance, the 

 south-eastern and nortli-eastem comers of the 

 buried wire both attract the north end of the 

 neeille, while the south-western and north-west- 

 em attract the .south pole of the needle ; and as 

 this result cannot be obtained with the wires 

 buried and disposed as in your experiment, so 

 also the result cannot be similar to that \vhich it 

 is in my arrangement. Besides, the electric 

 tension of the air has, until the last few days, 

 been bo low, that any very perceptible 

 beneficial influence for the last two months 

 could not have reasonably been expected, 

 any more than a wiudmill would be of 

 use when there exists little or no ■wind. 

 Experiment on eight acres in one plot has 

 already proved that largo areas may be electro- 

 (30.5) 



cultured, although as at first advised by me the 

 parallelograms should be longer north and south 

 than they are wide from east to west in the 

 proportion of one to two or three, and every 

 increased width of about 30 to 40 yards, beyond 

 the first 30, should have at least one additional 

 suspended collecting wire. "Beta" observes, 

 that the effect of the electi-icity extends without 

 the plot surrounded by the buried \vire. My 

 observations lead me to believe that it does so 

 in a very limited degi-ee to the eastward, the 

 Ime of com improved on that side being con- 

 cave, or receding from the east in the mid-length 

 of that side, which it was in about the same de- 

 gree convex, or tending beyond the wire to the 

 west, on that side. The explanation given 

 above why the diverging wires had not the same 

 influence when supplied with electricity as the 

 circumventing wires, also indicates the reason 

 why the effect is so nearly confined to the plot, 

 or area, included by the latter. I would also 

 advise your floricultural readers to have the 

 whole of the buried wires, poles, &c., arranged 

 at once, if not previously done, but not to erect 

 the suspended wire until the flower-buds are 

 beginning to be formed, otherwise the plants 

 will thrive to an unusual extent, as I have seen 

 this year they did in the hands of a friend, and 

 the flowers will in consequence be injured in a 

 degree, while if the additional power is added 

 just as the flower-buds ai-e fomied, nearly the 

 whole of the increased supply of fl.uid will be 

 employed in the development of the flowers, 

 which are, in consequence, larger, more per- 

 fect, and the colors more brilliant. 



(R. Dewey Foreter, Finthassie, near Elgin. 



