APPENDIX. 453 



tained in agriculture with the aid of electricity, or by 

 watering the soil with cultures of certain useful 

 microbes. I preferred to mention only well-established 

 facts of intensive culture ; but now it would be im- 

 possible not to mention what has been done in these 

 two directions. 



More than thirty years ago I mentioned in Nature 

 the increase of the crops obtained by a Russian land- 

 lord who used to place at a certain height above his 

 experimental field telegraph wires, through which an 

 electric current was passed. A few years ago, in 

 1908, Sir Oliver Lodge gave in the Daily Chronicle of 

 July 15 the results of similar experiments made in a 

 farm near Evesham by Messrs. Newman and Bomford, 

 with the aid of Sir Oliver Lodge's son, Mr. Lionel Lodge. 



A series of thin wires was placed above an ex- 

 perimental field at distances of ten yards from each 

 other. These wires were atfeched to telegraph poles, 

 high enough not to stand in the way of the carts loaded 

 with corn. Another field was cultivated by the side 

 of the former, in order to ascertain what would be the 

 crops obtained without the aid of electricity. 



The poles, five yards high, were placed far away 

 from each other, so that the wires were quite loose. 

 Owing to the high tension of the currents that had to 

 be passed through the wires, the insulators on the poles 

 were very powerful. The currents were positive and 

 of a high potential about 100,000 volts. The escape 

 of electricity under these conditions was so great that it 

 could be* seen in the dark. One could also feel it on 

 the hair and the face while passing under the wires. 



Nevertheless, the expenditure of electric force was 

 small, Sir Oliver Lodge writes ; because, if the potential 

 was high, the quantity of consumed energy was, not- 

 withstanding that, very small. It is known, indeed, 



