CHAPTER II 



A BRIEF REVIEW OF SOME EXPERIMENTS 



IN the summer of 1902 Professor Lemstrom erected an electric 

 installation at Durham College the crops experimented on were 

 strawberries, potatoes, mangolds, peas and sugar beets, but as 

 the apparatus was not in complece working order he was unable 

 to apply the discharge until nearly the end of May. During the 

 whole period of the experiment exceptionally wet weather was 

 experienced, and as it is useless to work the apparatus during 

 rain, he was only able to apply the discharge for about 50 hours 

 in 132 days ; but in spite of these disadvantages germination and 

 vegetation were distinctly better on the experimental fields than 

 on the control fields. The following tables show the increase per 

 cent. : 



In the same year an experiment was carried on near Breslau, in 

 Germany the weather throughout was very similar to that at 

 Durham College, Newcastle. Results were as follows : 



CROP. 



INCREASE PER CENT. 



Strawberries 

 Carrots 

 Potatoes (ist) 

 Potatoes (2nd) 

 Potatoes (3rd) 

 Oats (ist) 

 Oats (2nd) 

 Barley (ist) 

 Barley (2nd) 



50.1 



13*8 



17.4 average 20.8 



30.3 

 40.7 



4.5 average 22.6 



6.9 

 14.2 average 10.6 



