16 ELECTRICITY IN AGRICUITURE 
watered ; care was taken that every field should receive 
the same quantity of water. The result was that the 
carrots gave an increase of 125 per cent., and the peas 
(after careful estimation) 75 per cent.* 
-The results so far showed, therefore, that, if electricity 
is applied according to the above-mentioned method, 
favourable results were obtained equal to an increase of 40 
to 80 per cent. It had, besides, been shown that elec- 
tricity administered at the time of strong sunshine was 
damaging to the development of the plants. One other ex- 
perience gained from these experiments is the following :— 
The more fertile the soil and the more vigorous the 
vegetation the more stimulating will the effect of the electric 
current prove. A number of results show this. We will 
compare two experiments on potatoes and red beets, the one 
made on the field of the Garden Society, the other on the 
field at Brodtorp.. The former field possessed all the 
properties of garden soil, the latter was little better than 
ordinary farm land :— 
Garden soil, Field, 
For potatoes there was an increase of 762 percent. | 24°3 per cent. 
For red beets _,, ‘3 65°31 307 
Electricity will, in a high degree, accelerate the ripening 
of fruits, berries and roots, and probably develop more 
sugar in them. The former effect is well shown by 
experiments on strawberries and raspberries, the latter 
will be the object of further investigation.t 
In the greenhouse the strawberries under electrical 
treatment ripened in an average time of 30 days, while 24 
days more, or in all 54 days, was necessary for the berries 
without the benefit of the electric current. The same was 
the case with raspberries on the open field in Brétdorp, 
though the difference of time was there only 17 days. The 
* The peas were, shortly before ripening, purloined by pigeons, 
+ See the analysis of sugar beets in the experiments of the summer of 1902 
and 1903 on page 47. 
