St. Paul daily globe., 1895-05-28
ELECTRIC CROPS.
The Mysterious Current Used to
Force Vegetable Growth.

AHe M3steFIouS current USED to
Force Vegetable Growth.
New York World.
1t has long been known that the
electricity in the atmosphere plays an
important part in the stimulation of
vegetable growth, but hitherto no
practical use has been made of this
knowledge.
n'he results recently obtained by
some French scientists who have been
experimenting with the effect of cleo
tricity on plants indicate that a most
valuable aid to agriculture has been
discovered. A plant deprived of at
mospheric electricity by covering it
with network of fine steel wires soon
withers away and dies; when arti-
ficially stimulated by an electric cur
rent it blooms with far more vigor
than in a normal condition.
With these data to work upon the
experimenters moistened seeds with
water and then subjected them to the
influence of an electric current The
seeds thus treated grew with far more
Yigor and came to maturity sooner
than those not so treated. They even
succeeded in making date stones ger
inmate. which, is a very unusual thing
to happen in France.
Peas, beans and maize grew with
astonishing swiftness when treated
with the powerful current of a Ruhm-
korff COIL and the yield was greater
than ordinary. Experiments with bat
terieS were not so successful when the
current was passed through the earth,
because of the difference in the re-
sistance of the soil in various places
to the passage of the current. The re-
Sult1ng crop was uneven in character,
according as one particular section
received more or less of the electrical
current. With the powerful electrical
machines much more satisfactory re-
suits were obtained. Strawberries in
particular were ripened in remarka-
bly, short time.
Electrical machines are far too eX-
pensive, however, for a farmer to use,
and though all right in theory they
are too costly in practice.
. The new invention is called the geo.
tmagnetifere and consists of an or
binary pole forty or fifty feet high,
I surmounted with cheval de frise of
copper spikes, designated to act as a
collector of atmospheric electricity.
This collector is insulated from the
pole by a pocelain knob, and connects
with copper wire (also insulated from
the pole). which transmits the current
I to a network of wires which are laid
Under the soil at depth of about six
|, feet. These wires are made of gal
|, vanized iron, and their cost is not
| large.
BY the use of this apparatus the
production on a given area has been
Increased 80 per cent. The grapes from
vineyards in which the geomagneti-
| fere is used are richer in sugar and
alcohol than ordinary grapes. Flowers
/ have a stronger perfume also when
| stimulated in this manner.
+. THE exact chemical action which the
! current has upon fruits and vegetables
cannot be determined. It is only GER
tain that such action takes place.
| Some hold that it acts by aiding the
| p,ants to assiinilate the azote Of the
! atmosphere, while others think that
! It favors the assimilation of certain
! mineral salts in the soil.
| The experiment can be tried on any
| lawn or flower bed so long as the pole
| is away from the house. If too close
! it acts as a lightning conductor, but
without giving any protection
| It is estimated that geomagnetl-
fere sixty feet high will enrich the
| soil to the same degree as ten times
its cost in manure. At the present time
a successful farmer has to be some
| thing of a chemist and it E1ow seems
! as though he will have to be an cleo
gtrician, too