IO 



plants possess a vigor double that of the plants 

 occupying the rest of the earth, and that, too, 

 without a gap, without a feeble point in this group 

 of superb stalks, sharply circumscribed as by a line 

 drawn by a compass." 



According to the report of the committee dele- 

 gated by the Montbrison Society of Agriculture to 

 report on Paulin's experiments, a geomagnetifer 

 twenty-eight feet high, made its influence felt over 

 a radius of sixty-five feet, and the yield of potatoes 

 within this electrified area was from fifty per cent, 

 to seventy-five per cent, greater than without it. 

 This committee was quite enthusiastic over the re- 

 sults of Paulin's experiments, and awarded him a 

 special medal. He next experimented with his 

 geomagnetifer in a vineyard, and found that grapes 

 were much advanced in their growth, and that they 

 were sweeter (yielding about five per cent, more 

 sugar) and less acid. In further experiments he 

 found that spinach and celery were markedly influ- 

 enced, some leaves of the former reaching the length 

 of one and one fourth feet, and some stalks of the 

 latter three feet. Radishes and turnips were much 

 improved in size and quality, and sugar-beets 

 yielded a larger percentage of their saccharine 

 compound. It was also noticed that potatoes and 

 sugar-beets, electrically cultivated, were singularly 

 free from disease, while those outside of the influ- 

 ence were often seriously affected. 



Spechnew modified Paulin's experiment by stick- 

 ing a number of poles into a field, each pole having 

 a point at its apex, and all being connected with a 



