17 



In his report M. Basty notes that the potatoes grown on the 

 experimental ground on which the conductors had been placed, 

 were ready for lifting a week earlier than the control ones ; were 

 of stronger fabric and contained more starch.* 



In France the erection of lightning conductors is being largely 

 adopted for the protection of town and cultivated areas from the 

 damage done by severe hailstorms. These conductors consist 

 of gilded electrolytic copper mounted on a crown- shaped support 

 which is connected with the earth and placed on a suitable column 

 not less than 100 feet in height. A conductor of these dimensions 

 is qualified to protect an area of about three miles right and left 

 in direction of the wind, and by about three quarters of a mile 

 each way at right angles. The electricity with which storm 

 clouds are charged is attracted by the metal points on these con- 

 ductors, and finding an easy path down the wires is conveyed to 

 earth, thereby greatly minimizing, if not altogether dispersing, 

 the hailstorms which in the middle and Southern districts of 

 France are so prevalent, and which cause such havoc to vineyards. 



Being reared in an electrified atmosphere not only is beneficial 

 to plants, but to animals also, as recent experiments have shown. 

 Professor Silas Wentworth, of Los Gatos, California, states that 

 from the result of electric influence his lamb crop was more than 

 doubled, and the yield of wool greatly increased. He divided a 

 flock of 2,000 sheep into equal numbers, one half being placed 

 on pasture over which was stretched a network of electrically 

 charged wires, the other half being kept on ground entirely re- 

 moved from the electrical influence ; feeding and attention to each 

 flock were identical. He reports that the wool on the ewes on 

 the electrified area was finer and nearly twice as thick as that on 

 the ewes kept on the control portion, and the production of lambs 

 averaged a fraction over two lambs to each ewe, while the lamb 

 average on the unelectrified area was a fraction under one lamb 

 to each ewe, and the weight of wool considerably less. 



It is no uncommon thing now on the Continent for chickens 

 to be electrically hatched and reared, with the result that the 

 physical standard of the young birds is considerably higher. 



Herr G. Kesler, an enterprising German, has invented an in- 

 cubator and foster mother, which has an ingenious yet simple 

 arrangement of electric wires to constitute a heat radiator, which 

 when the current is switched on keeps up an uniform temperature 

 throughout the whole box. Once the degree of temperature is 

 set requisite for incubating the eggs, it is automatically kept on 

 the same level during the whole period of hatching, never varying 

 more than one tenth of a degree, and when once set in action 

 requires no further attention. Perfect ventilation is maintained, 

 fresh air entering through the bottom of the incubator and be- 



* Trans : "Journal Science et Commerce Industrie Mutualite " and " Le 

 Progress Agricole." 



