The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1904-09-23
ELECTRIC AID FOR FARMERS
DAY OF HEAVY LABOR FOR
HORSES WILL PASS AWAY.
Farm Machinery VIII More and More
be Operated by Steam, Gasoline
and Electricity Greatest Epoch In
Agricultural History Unfolding.

The day Of the horse as heavy la
borer on American farms Is ended and
farm machinery will more and more
be operated by steam, gasolene and
electricity In Germany and France
many creamerlss and small dairies
have been long in operation by this
method. American farmers have been
the leading users of labor-saying ma
chinery, but mostly on the large
farms, whare the weight of the ma
chinery was a constant drawback to
the adoption Of electric motor power
The machines are now being made
lighter without destroying their eff
cheney and electricity is rapidly play
ing an important part in their deyel-
opment.
The trackless trolley farms have
to-day doomed up as experimental in
vestments which thoroughly work cut
all that was claimed for them. With
cheaper power derived from the rivers
and waterfalls electricity will extend
to all parts of the country, and small
and large farming implements will be
operated thereby. Electric power Is
cheaper than horsepower, even when
ordinary fuel is used to operate the
engines, and when the power can be
supplied from some river it will be
far cheaper than steam in any form.
Conditions at present promise the
unfolding of one of the greatest
epochs in American agricultural his
tory. The last half century has been
remarkable for it's agricultural ma
chinery, but in the next fifty years
the use of electric power for cultivat-
ing farms, stimulating and planting
and harvesting crops will far eclipse
in Importance anything yet achieved.
In the new era of electric farming the
industry will attract men who now
look upon farm work as drudgery, and
the appearance of this new type Of
men in fields and orchards will tend
even more to create revolutionary
changes.
The application of the electric cur
rent to the growing plants by means
of wire netting in the soil or by the
arc rays has received peculiar atten-
ton from those interested in truck
gardening and greenhouse work. In
the latter the arc and incandescent
lamp have been employed more than
experimentally. The color of the
globes of the electric lamps has been
found to change the effect on the
plants.
BY repeated experiments different
colored globes are in use for different
purposes. The red rays are too high
ly stimulating for many plants and the
violet rays yield with the soft yellow
ones the best results. 1t is possible
in this way to stimulate the growth
of certain plants without materially
exhausting their vitality or weaken
ing the reproductive power Of the
seeds.
Many planthouses and lighthouses
now employ the electric arc lamp with
great success in forcing plant growths
during the cold winter days and
nights. BY keeping the plants flooded
with electric rays day and night the
PLANTS are forced to quick growth,
and they prove tender and crisp in
the case of lettuce and radishes.
The use of electricity for the pro-
lection of crops from insects, worms
and fungi is one of the latest develop
ments in this method Of agriculture.
Considering that millions of dollars
worth of crops are annually ruined by
insects, the employment of any agen-
cy must be a matter Of widespread
interest.
Electricity as an insect destroyer is
rapid and effective. 1t kills the eggs
and larvae of the bugs and worms
that live in the ground almost as