i8 



a metallic plate driven into the earth, and the wire 

 from the negative to a similar plate at some dis- 

 tance from the other one. More current is fur- 

 nished, but the expense is much greater. 



The earth-battery in the hands of Spechnew, in 

 the botanical gardens at Kew (London), achieved 

 some surprising results. He sank plates of zinc 

 and copper, about two feet square and connected 

 by copper wires, into beds in which he planted 

 various cereals and vegetables. He reported that 

 in some experiments with cereals in these electrified 

 beds the stalks were four times as large and the 

 yield of grain one and one half times as great as in 

 the beds not subjected to the electric treatment. 

 He produced in this electrified soil a radish seven- 

 teen inches long and five inches in diameter, and 

 a carrot nearly eleven inches in diameter and weigh- 

 ing five pounds. Both were juicy and fine-flavored. 

 Fischer, of Waldstein, experimented largely with 

 garden plants, placing his copper and zinc plates, 

 each sixty-five by forty centimetres, in the soil 

 thirty metres apart. In many plants he secured an 

 increase of from twofold to fourfold. He claimed 

 that the plants matured more quickly, and agreed 

 with Spechnew that they were always free from 

 disease, though often the surrounding plants were 

 badly affected with fungoid growths. 



Professor Warner, of the Agricultural College of 

 Massachusetts, has verified at the Hatch Experi- 

 ment Station many of the results of the European 

 experimenters, and has given us some very interest- 

 ing ones of his own. In experimenting with let- 



