408 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The earliest attempts in electric cultivation were confined more or 

 less to the use of static collectors similar to lightning conductors. 

 Mention has already been made of Abbe Berthelon, who in 1783,* 

 using for a collector a lofty pole with cupped points, discharged the 

 collected current into the plants around the base of the pole (fig. 65, 4) ; 

 but prior to this, in 1749, Abbe Nollet hung iron trays suspended from a 

 silk cord, and on this insulated plate he placed his plants, which he 

 charged with electro-static current from a primitive kind of rotary electro- 

 static or induction machine (fig. 65, 5). The experiments of both Abbe 

 Nollet and Berthelon were attended with some degree of success. Nollet 

 succeeded in accelerating the germination of maize and mustard. 

 Berthelon's experiments secured an increase in the fertility and growth 

 of the plants, and his plan has, it is said, been in common use in France 

 ever since. In highly electric districts it would not be difficult to 

 advantageously utilise abnormal electric potentials for electric distribution 

 to cultivated areas. 



The Russian experimentalist, Speschnew, relied on the flow of electrical 

 current between metals of opposite polarity, and experiments on those 

 lines have been conducted in Massachusetts, U.S.A. Two plates of 

 copper and zinc were sunk in the ground at either end of forcing-beds in 

 greenhouses (fig. 65, g). The slight current flowing between the plates 

 was found to highly accelerate the growth of lettuce. 



Berthelot had been occupied for some time before his death with 

 electric culture experiments. He employed electro-static currents, but 

 the author is not in possession of the actual quantitative results, though 

 Berthelot's electric carrots are not unknown in France. The greatest 

 and most persistent worker in the electro-static school so far was the 

 late Professor Lemstrom, who also died before his experiments were 

 completed. 



The electro -static current passing through the soil energises the 

 micro-organisms whose function it is to convert the nitrogen of the 

 fertilisers into a nitrate condition suitable for assimilation. 



The activities of the micro-organisms af the roots of the plant convert 

 the insoluble minerals into soluble ones, as nitrates, &c, in which form 

 they pass into the sap and help to build the structure of the plant. 

 According to Lemstrom, the electro-static current greatly stimulates the 

 flow of the sap. 



Lemstrom commenced his experiments in the year 1885. Employing 

 a small Holtz electro-static machine, barley, wheat, and rye were sown 

 in separate pots. The results showed 40 per cent, increase over non- 

 electrified grains, and subsequent experiment in a field of barley secured 

 an increase of about 35*1 per cent. The summary of Lemstrom's results 

 are given in the Appendix. 



Generally it may be said that Lemstrom's applications secured an 

 increased weight of products, whether the electric energy applied was of 

 positive or negative quality, or whether applied during the night or 

 during the daytime, but the success was greatly influenced by the 

 hygrometric condition of the air. 



* It is recorded that Maimberg, a Scotchman, made some tests in the year 1746, 

 on the influence of electricity on two myrtles, but the results were inconclusive. 



