AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND. 
123 
&griniliure in Scotland—No. G. 
Electricity —It has been customary to allege, that 
the farmers of all countries, as a class, are the very 
slowest in seizing upon new methods, and the most 
reluctant to leave the cherished ways of their fore¬ 
fathers. That there is much truth in this, as to our 
own country, f must admit; for even now rises up 
before me a long array of crooked fences ( a ) of stones 
seamed by the plows and harrows of successive 
generations; of outlandish and awkward implements; 
of bam yards on the summits of hills; of razor- 
backed pigs ; of skeleton cows, and a thousand other 
things which your imagination will readily suggest. 
These have been a reproach to us, and richly have 
we deserved it. But I trust that better days are com¬ 
mencing, even in our worst districts. 
On this side of the water, the farmers are fast los¬ 
ing sight of their grandfathers even, and never think 
of quoting more remote ancestry as a precedent. 
They are seriously contemplating the total abolition 
of fences ( b ), and intend to have the whole surface 
of the island one great net-work of drains. Not 
content with collecting every ounce and every drop of 
manure here, they are scouring sea and land for ad¬ 
ditional supplies. 
At their agricultural shows, the very earth shakes 
under the ponderous beasts that appear, while the 
clod-crushers, the grubbers, and the subsoil plows, 
bristling with arms, and hooks, and teeth, till the 
beholder with amazement and awe. 
A large proportion of the farmers, in addition to 
the fatting of these huge animals, and the manage¬ 
ment of these formidable implements, are turning 
their attention to scientific knowledge, and already 
have derived incalculable benefits; the very boys are 
becoming learned on the subject, and many a little 
fellow of twelve or fourteen, would drive a whole 
regiment of inveterate ancients back to their inacces¬ 
sible fastnesses among the usages of antiquity. But 
there are still others, who having fairly cut away 
from their old prejudices, are shooting on in advance 
at a prodigious rate, and hanging out beacons for us 
that we may follow their adventurous course. Some 
of them are making truly astonishing developments, 
which bid fair, according to their enthusiastic visions, 
to revolutionize our whole system. Among the 
recent discoveries is one which 1 deem it proper to 
touch upon, as I wish to keep you fully informed as 
to the more important movements of the day. 
Application of Electricity to Vegetation. —It seems 
that we have all been in the dark on the subject of 
electricity, and have never had more than a glimpse 
of the sun which is now to illumine us. It is true 
that some isolated and trifling attempts to bring it into 
the service of agriculture have been made, but not of 
a nature to promise much practical benefit. I notice 
that Mr. Ross, some time since, presented to the Far¬ 
mers’ Club of New York, a potato grown under the 
influence of an electrical current; but this potato, 
however superior in size to others grown alongside 
of it without the application of electricity, was soli¬ 
tary and alone, and would not be thought much of by 
the gentlemen who have now taken the matter up 
here. 
Their mode of operation is to measure off' an ob¬ 
long space of ground, and running through the mid¬ 
dle exactly north and south, to suspend an iron wire 
upon posts, so as to hang about 12 feet from the 
surface ; this communicates at each end with a wire 
laid under the ground along each side of the plot, at 
the depth of 2 or 3 inches, thus— 
Fig. 34. 
a ---j-a 
Explanation of Plan of Experimental Plot. 
а, a. Wire buried 2 or 3 inches deep, and each 
piece 12 yards long. 
б, b, Wire buried 2 or 3 inches deep, joined to the 
ends of a, a , and 55 yards long each. These should 
run exactly north and south. 
c, Line of wire 55 yards long, running north and 
south, equidistant from b, b. This is suspended on 
the ends of two posts, 12 feet from the surface of 
the ground, and runs down them communicating with 
the buried wire a, a. 
The whole cost of this here is 65. ($1.40). As 
the area increases the cost rapidly diminishes. 
Without entering into the scientific reasoning em¬ 
ployed, it is sufficient at present to say that these 
wires, acting in harmonious concert, create a constant 
current of electricity, and always have a stock on 
hand for the crops growing on the favored plot. It 
is said that the points of green growing vegetables 
are peculiarly attractive to this subtle fluid. As soon, 
therefore, as the young shoots emerge from the earth, 
they lose no time in pointing at the wires, the elec¬ 
tricity forthwith shoots down, and the plants shooting 
up, they grow tall, become excessively green, and 
have altogether such a flourishing appearance, that 
everything else in the neighborhood looks sickly in 
comparison. It is unfortunate that we as yet have 
very few facts to satisfy the incredulous of the truth 
of these things, as all of the extended experiments— 
only two or three in number—have been made by 
one gentleman, Mr. Forster, in Morayshire. On a 
wired plot of 25 square rods, he raised an enormous 
crop of barley, being at the rate of 104 bushels per 
acre, and an unheard of abundance of straw, equal 
to 9,390 lbs. per acre. The grain was larger, the 
barley was better, the straw was brighter and sweeter, 
than any on record. The most obstinate must, how¬ 
ever, be convinced, when they learn that electro-cul¬ 
tural societies are forming on a large scale. But a 
few days since, I saw a circular giving notice of a 
species of electro-cultural convention, at Tring, be¬ 
tween London and Birmingham. 
It is to be supposed that under this new system of 
feeding, our crops will surpass the quantities of our 
wildest dreams ; twenty years hence, we shall won¬ 
der how we ever considered 80 bushels of wheat to 
the acre a large crop, or how we ever looked upon a 
turnip weighing 15 lbs. as respectable. Mr. Ross’s 
potato no doubt felt lonely; had there been others 
near to encourage it, it would unquestionably have 
been 7 inches in diameter, rather than 7 in circum¬ 
ference. When the people of this country become 
fully imbued with these ideas, we may expect to see 
the whole island studded over with posts and tra¬ 
versed by iron wires ; and if Ireland does not follow 
the example, she will lose her name of the Emerald 
Isle, being entirely eclipsed by the superior verdure 
of England. 
