CHAPTER III 



ELECTRICITY FROM BATTERIES APPLIED TO 

 THE ROOTS OF PLANTS AND TO THE SUR- 

 ROUNDING SOIL 



IN the previous chapters we dealt with frictional 

 or static electricity, that developed by plate- 

 electric machines or drawn from the upper atmos- 

 phere, and which possesses high electromotive 

 force but is very deficient in quantity a little 

 stream, as it were, moving under great pressure. 

 This, by reason of its great electromotive force, 

 can penetrate the badly conducting air to plants 

 and readily pass through them to the soil. Now 

 we shall consider the uses of galvanic electricity, 

 or that from batteries, and which, having low elec- 

 tromotive force, though capable of being delivered 

 in large quantities, cannot be applied advantage- 

 ously to the stalks of plants, but can be furnished 

 readily to the soil surrounding their roots. 



A simple form of experimentation, which first 

 interested the writer and which yielded in the main 

 such favorable results that he was led to continue 

 his investigations, was as follows: 



Two boxes of like size were filled with the same 

 kind of soil, and in each was planted the same num- 

 ber of hemp seeds at the same depth. They were 

 exposed to similar conditions of heat, light, and 

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