ELECTRICITY TO INCREASE CROP PRODUCTION, 
Fry’s Meruops. 
The method finally adopted is simple in practice, and requires very 
little equipment, though care must be taken in carrying out the whole 
process.* A current of electricity will not pass through a heap of dry 
seed, so a solution of some substance is used to produce an electrolytic 
solution, in which the seed is soaked in a large wooden vat, holding 
ten to twenty sacks of seed, while a current of electricity is passed by 
means of two large electrodes (often an iron plate at each end of the 
vat). The current used is from an ordinary town supply, or from a 
dynamo, and a rheostat is used to regulate the yoltage. After treatment 
the solution is run off, the seed taken out and dried, and it is then ready 
for planting. The salt used in making the solution is important. At 
ONE OF THE FIRST COMMERCIAL INSTALLATIONS FOR ELECTRIFYING SEEDS. 
Fitted up by Mr. Foot, a corn merchant, of Dorchester, with current from the town supply. 
first the chemical fertilizers, such as sodium nitrate, ammonium sulphate, 
&c., were used. In some particular kind of soil, a calcium salt may 
give the ‘best results with one seed, say oats, while a sodium salt may 
give the best results with barley. Again, a potassium salt may be best 
with wheat on one soil, and a sodium salt with the same wheat on a 
different soil. Other variable factors are the strength of the solution, 
eae uees of time for treatment, and the strength of the current to be 
used. 
Barley, e.g., requires treatment twice as long as either oats or wheat. 
It would appear that each kind of seed requires its own special treat- 
ment, and the methods have been worked out chiefly for wheat, oats, 
and barley during the last five or six years, chiefly in Fry’s laboratory, 
at Godmanstone, in Dorset. The drying is very important, for, if the 
grain is overdried, it will be killed, and if underdried considerable 
damage is done to the germination. The seed should be sown within 
a month after treating. 
* See (New Book)—A Manual of Electro-chemical Treatment of Seeds. Dr. C. lL. Mercier, 134 pp. 
Uniy. of London Press, 1919. 3s. 6d. 
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