226 



have been carried out with those new facilities which, through 

 the kind co-operation of Sir Oliver Lodge, F. R. S., and his son, 

 Mr Lionel Lodge, he has been able to test very fully. 



" These trials have been made chiefly upon the land of Mr Ray- 

 mond Bomford at Salford Priors, near Evesham. Mr Bomford's 

 co-operation has been of the greatest value to Mr Newman. During 

 the last year or two, also, a smaller but interesting trial has been 

 made at Bitton, near Bristol, at some nurseries which are the pro- 

 perty of Mr George Newman. 



" The general assumption underlying the work is evidently that 

 the passage of a small electric current through the plant is benef- 

 icial to it, and tends to increase the yield and often to lessen the 

 time in which that yield is usually obtainable. 



" Perhaps it would be more correct to say that the assumption 

 is that an increase in the slight electric current passing in a plant 

 is beneficial, because it must be remembered that in the ordinary 

 way the atmosphere above a plant is usually at a higher potential 

 than the plant, and as a consequence a slight current is probably 

 leaking away to the ground through the vegetation, and Mr Newman 

 has followed Lemstrom in usually having his overhead wires charged 

 positively, and, therefore, practically, increasing this current to the 

 earth but not reversing its usual direction. 



" That this physiological effect is produced is stiU a subject 

 open to controversy and at present the most urgent need in con- 

 nection with this subject is further experimental physiological work 

 to decide the question. 



" Mr Priestley's own experiments upon the respiration of elec- 

 trified plants lead him to attach more importance than is usually 

 done to a possible accelerating action of the current. A study of 

 field experiments shows that often an acceleration is reported, and 

 this acceleration may have a very important bearing upon the yield 

 of the crop. 



" This acceleration effect seems to be only one indication of 

 many pointing to a raised vitality in the plant, as evinced by a 

 more active pursuance of its normal physiological functions. 



" Thus several experiments point to the fact that the electrified 

 plants give off water more rapidly, and as a consequence may suffer, 

 as compared with their unelectrified fellows, if too strongly elec- 

 trified during a dry season. This seems the most probable cause 

 of the smaller strawberry crop, accompanied by a much sweeter if, 

 on the average, smaller fruit, from the Evesham fields, in 1908. 



