No. 10. 



Cultivation of Celery. 



299 



atmosphere — a constant current of which 

 was found to proceed from east to west over 

 the whole of this earth's surface — might, by 

 some arrangement, be usefully employed in 

 agriculture; for Mr. Crosse, of Taunton, had 

 long since proved that the free electricity of 

 the air might be easily collected by wire 

 suspended on poles of wood, at many feet 

 from the earth's surface — the direction of 

 the wire being due north and south by the 

 compass; and many very interesting and 

 important facts and experiments had been 

 recorded by Mr. Crosse, and many collected 

 from a careful observance of the electricity 

 proceeding from the sus-pended wire. 



Mr. Forster next placed two poles four 

 feet high in his front lawn, which had been 

 recently laid down with chevalier barley and 

 grass, after draining and sub-ploughing it; 

 and over those poles which were due north 

 and south of each other, he stretched a com- 

 mon piece of iron wire, fixing the two ends 

 of it to stout wooden pins, driven in close to 

 the earth; and on the edges of the plot of 

 eight English poles, and around the edge, 

 which were straight lines, he sunk, about 

 two or three inches beneath the earth, two 

 wires of equal length, the ends of which 

 were fixed and in contact with the two ends 

 of the suspended wire, which were meant 

 not to be too tight, for its contraction, in 

 cold nights, would break it in two, or pull 

 away the fixtures, and thus defeat the ob- 

 ject. Mr. Forster formed two of these plots 

 for experiment, measuring eight square poles 

 each, and then proceeded to criticise his 

 work: and, to do so accurately, sought the 

 aid of " Noad's Popular Lectures on Elec- 

 tricity and Galvanism;" and almost the first 

 half hour's perusal showed him, that there 

 was such an error in one part of his plan as 

 would effectually defeat his intentions. This 

 was, that the point of a blade of grass or 

 young corn-plant has the most extraordinary 

 faculty or power of attracting or appropri- 

 ating to itself all the free electricity pre- 

 sent, at four times the distance that the 

 finest point of metal would or could ; so 

 that, when the points of the barley-plants 

 should reach one foot high, all the electri- 

 city that the suspended wire might before 

 that have collected and conveyed through 

 the buried wire to the roots of the plants, 

 would be abstracted by the points of the 

 barley; and thus the suspended wire, getting 

 nothing from the air, could not of course 

 supply anything; by which all the induced 

 electrical influence would cease. 



Mr. Forster, therefore, next day placed 

 poles eleven feet high above the surface, 

 with wires, &c., exactly the same, except 

 that the space surrounded by the buried 



wire was twenty-four poles, English mea- 

 sure. All the results are yet imperfectly 

 known; but these were evident: the barley 

 plants on the two smaller plots — of eight 

 poles each — soon became darker in colour, 

 and grew faster until they had attained to 

 about a foot in height; the darker green 

 colour then gradually disappeared; and, at 

 the end of a fortnight after, there was no 

 perceptible difference but in the height of 

 the young barley-plants; and even this 

 ceased to be very apparent as the crop ad- 

 vanced. When the barley of the larger or 

 twenty-four pole plot was six inches high, 

 it assumed the same lively dark green, and 

 grew faster than the surrounding unelectri- 

 fied barley-plant; and this difference it 

 maintained up to the last — except that the 

 colour, of course, in time became yellow; 

 and it was curious that this change occurred 

 later than in the rest of the crop. The 

 number of stooks or shocks was also greater, 

 and each larger when reaped;. the ears from 

 one grain of seed were more numerous and 

 longer; the corn, also, was larger and harder. 

 To make assurance doubly sure,. Mr. 

 Forster fixed to the short four feet poles of 

 one of the smaller plots,, pieces of dry pine 

 wood eight feet high, and suspended two 

 wires to them — one at that elevation, and 

 another a foot lower down-^and was pleased 

 to find that, after some time, this plot par- 

 tially resumed its former darker green co- 

 lour. The experiment has also been tried 

 at Liverpool with great success, on potatoes; 

 the crops being much larger than on the 

 other parts of the land. It was the opinion 

 of those scientific persons of whom he had 

 inquired, that even Professor Liebig was 

 not aware of the application to agricul- 

 ture of this discovery. It seemed, then, that 

 the meeting was now in possession of valu- 

 able details, which were known to very few 

 persons in the whole country. He hoped 

 some gentleman would try the experiments, 

 and write upon the subject; for he had writ- 

 ten to the Royal Agricultural Society to 

 offer £30 for the best prize essay on gal- 

 vanism and electricity as applicable to agri- 

 culture. — London Spectator. 



From Ellsworth's Report for 1844. 

 Cultivation of Celery. 



New York, December 12th, 1844. 



Dear Sir, — The cultivation and growth 

 of celery, that most excellent and whole- 

 some winter vegetable, require the close 

 attention of the gardener to bring it to per- 

 fection. 



A practical gardener will soon learn the 

 art ; and for the benefit of those who have 



