Growing Crops and Plants 



by Electricity. 



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CHAPTER I 



WHO SUGGESTED THE IDEA OF GROWING PLANTS BY 

 ELECTRICITY ? 



A LTHOUGH it is only within recent years that practical 

 j^\^ experiments have been made in electro-culture, the idea 

 is by no means new. So far back as 1746 an Edinburgh 

 physician electrified two myrtle trees and found that " they put 

 forth small branches and blossoms sooner than other shrubs of the 

 same kind which had not been electrified." 



Not long after this a French scientist made similar experiments 

 on a number of plants, all of which flourished under the electric 

 influence. We find other records of experiments made from time 

 to time, but the real beginning of the practical electro-culture 

 dates from 1885. In that year the late Professor Lemstrom, of 

 Sweden, made his first practical experiments. 



During his travels in the Polar regions the attention of Professor 

 Lemstrom, as well as that of other travellers, was attracted by 

 the remarkable development in the vegetation of those parts as 

 compared with that of more Southern regions ; not only did the 

 plants come to maturity in less time, but the scent and cclour of 

 the flowers, and the freshness of the green were striking to the 

 most casual observer. Everyone knows that vegetables, cereals, 

 flowers, and in fact, all forms of vegetation require a good soil, and 

 a sufficient supply of heat and moisture to cultivate them with 

 any success ; in the Polar regions both the illuminating and 

 heating effects of the sun are very low, even though the days are 

 long, therefore an explanation of this development had to be 

 sought. Professor Lemstrom, in his book treating of the subject 

 of these investigations, says : " For several reasons I was induced 

 to search for the cause in electrical currents, the effect of which 



