84 Farmers' Miscellany. [Jan., 



ELECTRICITY IN AGRICULTURE. 



In the latter part of the last century, experiments were made 

 in Engfland, which excited no little attention at the time, on the 

 application of electricity to the purposes of agriculture, in promot- 

 ing vegetation. It was considered by some, as well established, 

 that positive electricity hastened vegetation, and especially was 

 influential in bringing rapidly forward the germination of seeds. 

 Others, on the other hand, put no faith in these matters. The 

 former class, according to their own reports, succeeded in a re- 

 markable degree with their experiments, and produced astonishing 

 resuhs. But the latter class, upon repeating the experiments, uni- 

 formly failed of bringing any thing to pass, and decided that 

 neither positive nor negative electricity has any effect in increas- 

 ing veo:etation. 



Mr. Darwin, in his Phytologia, records a number of experi- 

 ments and results, and he seems to have come to the conclusion 

 that this fluid accelerates vegetation. He states that Mr. D'Or- 

 mey found various seeds to vegetate sooner and grow taller, and, 

 what is vastly more remarkable, he found that silkworms, sup- 

 plied with electricity, began to spin much sooner than those which 

 were not. Perhaps if he had tried the effects of the fluid upon 

 the egg of a hen, he would have found it to hatch some days 

 sooner than the usual period, and domestic animals might have 

 been brought to maturity much earlier. 



After an argument of some length on this subject, Mr. Darwin 

 concludes thus: — "A profitable application of electricity by the 

 gardener or agricultor, to promote the growth of plants, is not 

 yet discovered. It is nevertheless probable, that in dry seasons 

 the erection of numerous metallic points on the surface of the 

 ground, but a few feet high, might in the night-time contribute 

 to precipitate the dew by facilitating the passage of the electri- 

 city from the air into the earth: and that an erection of such 

 points higher in the air by means of wires wrapped around tall 



