APPENDIX. 167 



have since been reported in which benefits are said 

 to have resulted from its use. A few years ago 

 several such experiments were made in France. 

 It had been noticed that certain plants throve 

 better when near large trees, and it was assumed 

 that this was due to electricity conducted to the 

 soil by the trees. Iron cages were then prepared 

 in which growing plants were placed under the 

 influence of electricity, with apparently beneficial 

 results. Naudin, however, in repeating these 

 experiments, showed that the only advantage 

 gained by certain plants in growing in such a cage, 

 was due to the slight shade afforded and which 

 these particular plants required. The London 

 Horticultural Society took up the question and 

 satisfied itself that no beneficial result could be 

 obtained by the use of electricity on growing 

 plants. 



In the United States the subject has scarcely 

 been heard of since the following was published by 

 A. J. Downing in the first volume of the Horticul- 

 turist : 



" Our readers will remember the startling account 

 of the growth of crops under electric action, which 

 went the rounds of our agricultural papers about a 

 year ago. Mr. Eosse's report, read before the 

 farmers' club in New York, in which he stated that 

 by galvanizing a row of potatoes 200 feet long 



