The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1894-07-18
THE MAGIC WIRE.
Electrical Currents as an Aid to
Agriculture.
Wonderful Results OF Expert
ments i'm France.

During the past year Brother Paulin,
Director of the Agricultural Institute
of Bauvals, France, has been making
electrical experiments, in the promo
ton of horticulture, and, If they con-
tinue as they have begun, they must
have D great influence on the food sup
ply of the future. Professor Paulin's
experiment was almost as simple in its
method as Franklin's appliances for
drawing lightning from the clouds.
In the middle of the ground selected
for his purpose, the professor erected
a tall pole on which there was an ordi-
nary lightning rod, with wire brush
attachment to catch the atmospheric
electricity and convey it to the earth.
Attached to the rod we're wires which
carried the current along the ground
and under the vegetables he had
planted. All the farmers and WISE
acres, who, like their fathers, had been
carrying their grst to mill with the
grain in one end of the bag and n
stone in the other, laughed at the pro-
fessor, but the crop that followed this
experiment fairly dazed and amazed
them, and it delighted the man who
expected something from his work,
but nothing so startling.
Turnips treated in this way literally
choked the ground, and potatoes not
only yielded twice the quantity of
former years, but the tubers were of
extraordinary size and sound to the
core. All the other vegetables and
fruits near the magic wire ilourished
like the prophet greed and today the
farmers about Bauvals, without being
able to understand the reason, are
planting the electric lightning rods in
their fields, and place wires instead of
the customary fertilizers under their
garden rows
The suppositon is and it may be
right, certainly no one is in position
to controvert it, that the marvellous
effect has been produced by the yivi-
flying action of the electricity on what
are called the "nitrifying bacteria,
that is the microscopic organism that
supplies in some mysterious way the
essential element of nitrogen to plants.
As Franklins simple experiment was
followed by the most marvellous results
80 we may anticipate with certainty
that in the near future electricity, no
matter where derived from, will be-
come an essential factor in farming,
and that lands worn out and aban-
doned as worthless, under this new
and magic stimulus, will again bios
som like the rose, and become more
fertile than in their palmiest days.
Russia is not usually regarded as a
land of progress, but in that country
it was demonstrated three years ago,
that even during the long winters in
latitude tifty-seven degrees north,
plants flourished under glass as Wig
orously under electric light as when
subjected to the direct rays of the
setting sun. BY means of this light
and artificial heat, it has been demon
strated that vegetables, fruits and
flowers can be grown as luxuriantly
in cave up near the North Pole as
inside the tropics. Indeed, it is
claimed by some that the fertility of
equatorial lands is largely due to the
greater electrical action between earth
and sky, induced by or manifesting
itself in frequent violent storms ac-
companied by rain and lightning.