74 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



growth and earlier maturity of tlie treated plant. Yet we do not 

 know whether such treatment can be employed to any practical 

 extent, and it is highly probable that it will never become a 

 powerful factor in horticultural practice. The most marked 

 results with electrification are those in which the current has been 

 applied to germinating seeds and ripening fruits, when it has been 

 found, in many instances, to greatly hasten sprouting and ripen- 

 ing. It is probable that in this case the effect of the current is a 

 chemical one in hastening the metabolism of the seed or fruit 

 contents. 



2. In the application of electrical energy to the soil, there are 

 more definite results, yet the experiments are by no means uniform 

 in their conclusions. In fact, there are the most opposed results, 

 but this disagreement is no doubt very often due to unlike 

 exterior conditions, and particularly to unlike species of plants 

 which have been the subjects of experiment, and not to variation 

 in fundamental action. This is well shown in the experiments of 

 Warner, at the Hatch Experiment Station of Massachusetts, who 

 was the first to enter this field in America. He found that 

 parsnips, lettuce, salsify, radishes, and peas, were benefited by 

 the application of electricity to the soil ; but under the same 

 conditions, carrots gave indifferent results, while turnips and beets 

 gave decidedly poor return. There was even a difference between 

 varieties of the radish, the White Strasburg thriving better than 

 the French Breakfast. But even at the best, this application of 

 electricity so far promises little in the way of commercial results. 



Although it is not my purpose to analyze the results of the 

 various experiments in the application of electricity to the soil, I 

 wish to submit a few suggestions in passing. In the first place, 

 it has not been proved, so far as I know, that the effects are due 

 to the mere electrification of the soil. It is quite as probable that 

 the injuries or benefits follow some chemical or mechanical effect 

 which the current may exert upon the soil or the interstitial air. 

 But what I particularly wish to say is that I have not yet read of 

 an investigation in this direction which satisfies the demands of 

 exact experimentation. The electric plots in these experiments 

 are provided with wires or metal plates beneath the soil, while the 

 control plots are left in a normal condition. The placing of the 

 apparatus in the soil requires the removal and replacement of all 

 or a part of the earth, and the soil is therefore in a ditferent and 



