St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-06-19
ELECTRICAL FARMING.
Plan for q New Scheme-Success
full Agricultural Experiment
by q French Monk.
Some Interesting and Remarkable
Results Obtained Through
the Discovery.

Results Obtained Through
the Discovery.
Does electricity exercise a favorable
influence on vegetation, and can it be
utilized by agriculturists to obtain a
better termination, a greater develop
ment of the plant, and consequently an
increased crop? This question, which
has been much discussed lately, is by
10 means a new one. Experiments
have been made at different periods
since 100, all OF which failed more or
less. But this proves simply that the
systems employed were defective, and
not that electricity cannot be used with
great benefit in agriculture, says the
Pail Mall Gazette.
A new modus operandi has been de-
vised and successfully put into opera
ton by French monk named Brother
Paulim. The efficacy of the new plan
is Vouched for by facts which command
attention. Brother Paulin's method of
collecting and distributing electricity is
simple. A pole fifteen or twenty yards
high, supporting au Isolated galvanized
iron wire, is erected. Over the top of
the pole the wire ends in copper brush
with five branches, which serves as
collector of whatever electricity due to
meteorological phenomena thunder
storms, rain, wind, etc. may exist in
the lower strata of the atmosphere.
A network of wires about two yards
apart, in communication with the con-
ductor,is disposed in squares, and covers
a space greater or less, according to the
height of the pole, one of seventeen
yards in height sufficing for a space of
three-quarterS of an acre. The wires
are buried sufficiently deep six to
twenty incheS) not to interfere with the
ordinary cultivation of the land. They
may last for years. and need only be re-
newed when so far eaten away by rust
as to be no longer able to transmit the
electric current.
Brother Paulin's first experiment was
made in potato field at Montbrison in
the spring of 1891. In the following
July visit was paid to the field by
deputation Of agricuturiStS who re-
ported to their societies as follows:
The attention is at once arrested by
marked irregularity in the vegetation of
the field. Within limited space, Sit
uated exactly over the wires of the
geOmagnet fere, the potato plants are
without a break or weak spot The
patch contains magnificent stalks, sep
arated from the rest as distinctly as if a
line had been drawn with a compass"
The report of the Agricultural society
of MontbriSon. which subsequently
awarded siIvergilt medal to Brother
Paulin, runs thus: 1.-The influence of a
'geomangetifere, twenty-eight feet in
height. was perceptible over a space
forty-four yards in diameter. In this
part of the field stalks and vegetation of
the plants, which are of extraordinary
size, have still (Sept. 23) preserved their
greenness, thereby contrasting strongly
with the remainder Of the crop. Several
stalks measured were found to be tour
feet ten inches in diameter. After ex-
aiming the vegetation of the plants,
the members of the committee chose
four spaces of nineteen square yards
each-two IN the electrically influenced
part of the field and two elsewhere.
These spaces were selected in places
age result. The thirty-eight square
yards of ground above the wires yielded
IA st. 2 lbs. of tubers, while the other
thirty-eight square yards only yielded
9 ST. lbs"
The production per acre would, there
fore, be IL as against ~ tons. The re-
suit, which was obtained without any
special fertilizer and with weak-yield-
ing variety of plant (the ordinary violet
potato), equals the crops raised by
means of expensive chemical manure.
On Oct. II the difference was still great
er than before, sixty feet of influenced
ground yielding nearly II cwt., as com
pared wilh "a cwt. from another part of
the field. The second experiment was
made in vineyard, and was attended
with equal success.
The grapes came to maturity quicker
and were more regular around the geo
magnetifere' than elsewhere. Analy-
sis CT the juice of very ripe fruit gave
remarkable balance in favor OF the new
method of viticulture, both in the per-
centage of sugar and in the degree Of
alcohol.
Experiments made in 1892 further
the value of Brother Pau
Inns discovery. In April ''geomag-
netlfere" tweDty-six yards high was
erected at Walls, near LIE Puy. in spin
ach field Sown in 1891. In the Begin
ming of May marked difference could
be observed III the vigor and color of
the plants growing above the wires
from that of those in the rest of the
field. ssN
On the 18th of May five or six square
yards of each kind of spinach was torn
up by the roots and weighed. The diff
ference in favor of the electrified area
was little over one and one-half
pounds per square yard. On the 21st of
May this difference had risen to nearly
two and one-half pounds, and OH the
9th of May committee of professors
and agriculturists agreed that the action
of the atmospheric electricity had in
creased the output of spinach by over
three pounds per square yard. at
Thuyets (Ardeche) spinach was obtained
with leaves thirteen inches long, and
celery thirty-siX inches long.
AT Tours, the stalks of potato plants
reached the height of seven feet. Mag
nificent radishes and turnipS, as we'll as
beet root with an exceptional percent
age of sugar, have also been obtained in
different localities through the ''geo-
magnetifere."
In what precise way the electricity
acts to produce these remarkable results
is hot known. Whether there is a de-
composition of the air and "fYation"
of the azote in the soil, or whether the
fluid simply renders the useful matter
contained in the earth and in the fer
tilizers more assimilable, is problem
yet to be solved.
The wall of agricultural depression Is
loud in England. and the stock panaceas
of poultry farming and jam manufacture
have not brought back joy to the coun-
try-sde. The cost of the "earth cleo
trifier'' is slight; its fertilizing power is
In fair way to be established. 1t Is to
be hoped that British agrlculturlsts will
not fail to make trial ON their own ac-
count of what may prove remarkable
agent in the rehabilitation of their in
dustry.