152 CEYLON BRANCH- — ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



NOTES ON SOME EXPERIMENTS IN 

 ELECTRO- AGRICULTURE* 



BY JOHN CAPPER, ESQ. 



(Read February 6, 1847. ) 



The substance of this paper relating to some facts con- 

 nected with the growth of the Cinnamon plant, and one or 

 two attempts at electro-agriculture made in a very un- 

 scientific manner, scarcely deserves recording, were it not 

 that trifles often pave the way to important results. 



For some few years past my attention has been more or 

 less directed towards the cultivation of the Cinnamon plant, 

 and amidst much of business detail I have frequently noted 

 facts connected with its economy which perhaps may not 

 have been observed by many. 



It was an observance of some of these facts which indu- 

 ced me last year to endeavour to trace out their cause, and 

 afterwards to try one or two simple experiments which it is 

 now my intention to describe. 



The Cinnamon tree as cultivated for its bark is main- 

 tained in an entirely artificial state. A constant cutting of 

 the sticks as they reach maturity for the knife, is followed 

 by a succession of others after the first rains, and these are 

 generally fit for peeling within eighteen months or two 

 years, their greatest growth occuring during the first six 

 months of their age. 



Having frequenly remarked the very rapid growth of 

 the young Cinnamon shoots after thunder showers during 

 changes of the monsoon, I was induced to measure a few 

 of them during the month of October 1845, and the result 

 was that in the first 24 hours after heavy rain, accompanied 

 by thunder, the shoots grew half an inch : in the second 24 

 hours they grew three quarters of an inch, and in the third 

 and two following days at the rate of one inch. 



Wishing to compare these results with the effect of arti- 

 ficial watering during dry weather, I freely supplied one 

 or two bushes which had a number of young shoots on them 

 with water during the month of January 1846 but the like 

 results did not follow. The maximum growth which I de- 

 tected during any 24 hours was half an inch, and that for 



