ELECTRO-HORTICULTURE 



CHAPTER I 



THE DAWN OF ELECTRO-HORTICULTURE. THE 

 APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY TO THE 

 STALKS OF PLANTS 



THE use of electricity in horticulture, while 

 seemingly of recent years, had its small be- 

 ginning long before the invention of the dynamo, 

 and even antedated several years Franklin's im- 

 portant discovery, in 1752, by which he startled the 

 scientific world with the announcement that he had 

 drawn the " electric fluid " from the clouds by 

 means of a kite, and had proved it to be identical 

 with the electricity of the Leyden jar. As early as 

 1746, the very year which saw the invention of the 

 famous Leyden jar, Von Maimbray, of Edinburgh, 

 began to study the effects of electricity upon plant 

 life, his first experiment being with two young myrtle 

 trees. He simply passed the current down through 

 them to the soil, and found that it stimulated their 

 growth. Soon experimenters upon the continent 

 were at work along the same line, and their results 



