7 



some of them under a system of wires with points 

 projecting downward so as to deliver the electricity 

 from the positive pole of a Holtz machine upon the 

 growing plants; the others were not exposed to the 

 current. He found in six weeks (the machine 

 being in operation five hours each day) that the 

 plants electrically treated were forty per cent, in 

 advance of the others. He also found that it did 

 not matter whether the electricity was passed down 

 through the plant or in the opposite direction. 



In 1885, experiments were conducted on a larger 

 scale in the open fields in the domain of Niemis. 

 A system of insulated wires was erected over part 

 of a field of barley; at short intervals were metallic 

 points which could deliver the electricity down 

 upon the grain. This system was connected with 

 the positive pole of a four-disk Holtz machine, the 

 negative pole being connected with a zinc plate 

 buried in the earth. The machine was run eight 

 hours a day. The result was that the crop was in- 

 creased one third in the electrified part of the field. 

 Larger claims were made in the following year by 

 the experimenters at Brodtorp, who used the cur- 

 rent from four electric machines. 



From the many experiments conducted by Lem- 

 strom, he concluded that electricity favorably 

 affected the growth of wheat, rye, barley, oats, 

 beets, parsnips, potatoes, radishes, celery, leeks, 

 kidney-beans, raspberries, and strawberries; while 

 carrots, rutabagas, turnips, cabbages, and tobacco 

 were more or less injured by the electric treatment. 



That the results obtained by the different invest- 



