II 



system of underground conducting wires, so as to 

 distribute the electricity to the soil. " By these 

 means," he says, " the electricity of the atmosphere 

 is rendered denser over the field, and the plants 

 develop in a field of high electric tension." After 

 five years of experimentation he was most favorably 

 impressed with the results. He tells us that 475 

 pounds of rye by the ordinary method of cultiva- 

 tion grew 2825 pounds of grain and 6175 pounds of 

 straw; while by the electric method the same quan- 

 tity of seed yielded 3625 pounds of grain and 9900 

 pounds of straw. Barley and wheat responded in 

 a similar manner, while oats yielded even larger 

 returns. 



This method of applying electricity to vegetation 

 is a tempting one to pursue on account of the 

 abundance of atmospheric electricity at one's 

 command. 



In speculating on cosmical electricity, Prof. Elihu 

 Thomson says: " The earth may possess the char- 

 acter of a huge conductor, the outer coating being 

 the rarefied conducting air, the inner coating the 

 ground and water surface, and the dielectric the 

 dense air between." The electric potential on 

 the top of the Eiffel Tower (984 feet high), he says, 

 may be as great as 10,000 volts; and if the increase 

 be 1000 volts for every 100 feet, on the average, it 

 would rise to 1,000,000 volts at an altitude of 

 twenty miles. So, we may liken the earth to a 

 huge Leyden jar, the dense air acting like the non- 

 conducting glass between the inner and outer 

 metallic coatings of the jar. Sometimes in charg- 



