AND HORTICULTURE. 61 
RULES FOR APPLYING THE ELECTRICAL 
AIR-CURRENT ON GROWING PLANTS. 
Introduction—The principal manner in which electricity, 
or an electrical air current, exercises its influence on growing 
vegetables has been discovered to consist (1) partly in pro- 
ducing ozone and nitric compounds and introducing them 
into the capillary tubes of the plants when the current is 
going from the points of the wire-net to the earth (posi- 
tive) ; and (2) partly in drawing up the sap from the roots 
upwards when the current is going from the earth to the 
points (negative),* the former effect being about 30 per 
cent. greater than the latter. If we suppose that the 
former or positive current is applied, it will be easy 
to apply it for the purpose, and to give clear rules for 
this application. The lengthy experience I have had in 
these experiments enables me to give these rules, which, if 
they are intelligently applied, will lead to favourable results. 
I. 
The whole scheme of the experiments will be easily 
understood from the diagram (Fig. 7) on the opposite page. 
From the positive pole ¢ of the influence machine is 
coriducted an insulated copper wire through a hole in an 
ebonite disc fixed in the wall, over the posts p to the 
insulated wire net www over the growing plants. The 
negative pole ¢ is conducted to a zinc plate, z, in humid 
soil. Following are details of :— 
1. The electric influence machine, its installation, and 
the motor. i 
2. The experimental and control fields. 
3. Putting the wire-net on the insulators and their fixing. 
4. Remarks. . 
5. Cost of the experiments. 
* See “On the State of Liquids in Capillary Tubes under the Influence of an. 
Electrical Air-Current.” By the Author. (Sve p. 34). 
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