SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
The Application of Electricity to 
Increase Crop Production. 
"By EWEN MACKINNON, B.A. B.Sc. | 
One of the main problems that England had to face during the 
war was the provision of an adequate food supply, not only for herself 
and her armies, but also for her Allies. 
Since the armistice, the -same problems of food. supply still loom 
large before the Allies. This is due partly to the unsettled conditions 
in some of the large grain-producing ‘countries, e.g., Russia and 
Roumania, but also to the falling off in the average yields in some 
allied countries owing to adverse seasons, lack of suitable fertilizers, 
diseases, &c. Early in the war the plea was sounded for increased 
TWO BUNDLES OF BLACK TARTARIAN OATS WITH 75 STRAWS IN EACH BUNDLE. 
The improvement in straw and grain from the electrified seed is shown on the left. 
production. throughout the British Empire. There are two ways of 
increasing, viz.:—(1) By bringing a larger area under cultivation; and 
(2) by raising the average yield per acre of the land already under 
cultivation or about to be cultivated. It was chiefly by the first method 
that the great increase was obtained for 1915, though the second method 
did operate, but not from effort in that direction. Australia increased 
her area under wheat cultivation to 124 million acres (previous greatest, 
9.6 millions), which yielded 179 million bushels of wheat at an average 
of 14.34 bushels per acre. Since that year, both the total area and the 
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