No. 1. 



Death of J. C. Loudon. 



13 



received a silent charge, and on the 23rd 

 was nearly three feet high. On that even- 

 ing it received another charge, and was, on 

 the first of October, almost six feet high, 

 when it received another charge. Its 

 growth was now rapid, owing, perhaps, to 

 several thunder. showers between that and 

 the last week of the fair of the American 

 Institute, when it was taken to Niblo's. Its 

 height, including the root which was dug 

 with it, was 11 feet 8 inches, while its di- 

 ameter at the ground was under five-eighths 

 of an inch. There were then two blossoms 

 upon it, with several blossom buds: the blos- 

 soms were small, not quite two-thirds the 

 siie of those on the plant from which it was 

 taken. 



As I have explained at length these seve- 

 ral experiments, and also the mode of giving 

 the shock, I shall now only mention one 

 other experiment of last year on the egg 

 plant — solanvm melongena. On the even- 

 ing of the 3rd of June, I sowed some seeds 

 of egg plant in a glass cup, with the same 

 mixture as used before in the cucumber 

 hills, and passed two smart shocks through 

 it. In the morning most of the seeds had 

 germinated, and were, in the afternoon, put 

 in the open ground. During their growth, 

 they received three charges, and the fruit 

 was presented at the late fair. As to their 

 size, they were not the largest there, but 

 they were larger than any I saw in my own 

 neighbourhood, and also larger than any I 

 had ever before raised from plants forwarded 

 in a hot-bed with much trouble and care in 

 the spring. 



This season my only experiment, as yet, 

 has been with potatoes, and the electricity 

 used is generated by different means from 

 the others, which, until the discovery of Mr. 

 Bain, was not adapted for the practical 

 farmer. Now it is at once the most econom- 

 ical, efficient, and simfle to apply, as may 

 be seen by the following experiment: I had 

 potatoes planted on the 6th of May, and as 

 a first experiment with Mr. Bain's discovery, 

 I procured a sheet of sheathing copper, which 

 is about 5 feet long and 14 inches wide, and 

 cut a piece of sheet zinc the same size as 

 the sheet of copper. 



w Surface of sround 



100 feet. 



c, in the above diagram, represents the sheet 

 of copper buried in the ground at one end of j 



the rows, and z the sheet of zinc buried at 

 the other end of the rows, and j^) is a copper 

 wire, which is attached to both the copper 

 and zinc. The result of this arrangement 

 is, that the two metals form a galvanic bat- 

 tery, being in metallic connexion by means 

 of the wire w, and the moisture of the soil 

 completing the galvanic circuit, which last 

 is necessary, before any chemical action 

 takes place. The potatoes were planted in 

 drills, but as the copper was only five feet 

 long, only three rows could be influenced by 

 it. The potatoes were only once hoed, and 

 from circumstances never earthed up. On 

 the 15th of June, some potatoes were taken 

 by the fingers from these rows, varying from 

 one inch to one and a quarter in diameter; 

 and those exhibited at the N. Y. Farmers' 

 Club, July 2nd, were about two and a half 

 inches in diameter, and were dug from the 

 same three rows. Some of the adjoining 

 rows were tried, but few of them had pota- 

 toes larger than marrowfat peas — certainly 

 none larger than a boy's marble. 



These experiments can only be taken as 

 isolated facts: no more general conclusion 

 can be drawn from them than that electri- 

 city accelerates the growth of plants. This 

 has been observed by many of atmospherical 

 electricity — but it has yet to be determined 

 how, artificially excited, electricity can be 

 made as available to the farmer as it now is 

 tothe electro-metallurgist, in reducing metals 

 from their ores, or in gilding and plating, or 

 even copying the most delicate engravings. 



On a future occasion I may show how a 

 battery may be put in action by the farmer 

 without any other expense than that for the 

 materials ; all which, except the zinc, will 

 last for an indefinite period, as there is no 

 action whatever on the copper while a cur- 

 rent is passing. — N. York Farmer and Me- 

 chanic. 



Death of J. C. Loudon. 



On the 14th of December, 1843, died, at 

 his house at Bayswater, John Claudius Lou- 

 don, Esq., who for nearly half a century, 

 has been before the public as a writer of 

 numerous useful and popular works on Gar- 

 dening, Agriculture, and Architecture. 



Mr. Loudon's father was a farmer, residing 

 in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where 

 he was very highly respected; but Mr. Lou- 

 don was born on April 8th, 1763, at Cambu- 

 slang, in Lanarkshire, where his mother's 

 only sister resided, herself the mother of 

 the" Rev. Dr. Claudius Buchanan, afterwards 

 celebrated for his philanthropic labours in 

 India. Dr. Buchanan was several years 

 older than Mr. Loudon, but there was a 



