AND HORTICULTURE. 39 
With regard to the strawberry plants, the same progress 
was observed with both the Sections II. and ITI. 
The carrots showed the following results :— 
Leaves. Roots. Increase 
Weight ing. Weighting. in per cent. 
Section I. ... 30°90 ... 104°60 positive current we 182°7 
5 II. ... 15°70 .... 49°00 negative current ...  32°4 
»  IlIL.... 16°70 ... 42°05 alternately positive ... 13°2 
and negative 
is IV. ... 16°65 .... 37°00 no current ao. = 
The results of this series of experiments indicates clearly 
that carrots, which have showed hitherto decreased growth 
from the electric treatment (except at the experiments in 
the garden of Laferté in Burgundy and at the experiments 
made at Brédtorp in 1899 and 1900, where watering was 
done during the experiments), were here increased ; and 
this conclusion can be applied to other vegetables which 
have previously showed a decrease from the electrical 
treatment: It shows, further, that the positive current in 
Section I. is giving a result which far surpasses the negative 
one in Section II. 
Consequently, it is not only by a mechanical updrawing 
from the root of the water and dissolved matter within it 
that the electric circuit operates; it aids the development 
more powerfully when it goes in the opposite direction. 
The question therefore arises: Is the positive current 
able to exercise a mechanical effect on the plants? With- 
out doubt; for it is known that when a cut branch from a 
leafy tree is put into water upside down, it can suck up the 
water and keep living a long time; and it is the same with 
plants. The positive current introduces into the plants the 
different elements or compounds of the air, besides oxygen 
and nitrogen—water, carbonic acid, ozone and nitric acids, 
ammonia, &c.* A portion of these compounds is formed 
* Experiments executed in the laboratory of physics at the University of 
Helsingfors show that the electric current which is going out from the points 
forms the followirg chemical compounds, the nature of which has been deter- 
mined by chemical analysis : Ozone (2 great guaitztzes), nitric acids, nitrous 
acid, ammonia (doubtful). 
