Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-07-26
TO TAKE
PLACE OF SUNSHINE

''The open fields is to become
a phrase of the past. The fields
of the future will be covered with
network of wires which will
radiate high-tension electricity
through the crops beneath and bring
them to fruitfulncss such as the
old-fashioned sunshine could not
possibly bestow.
Such, at any rate, is the potential
outcome of experiments which Mr..
J. E. Newman, an electrical engi-
neer, is carrying out on farm at
Iron Cross, midway between Eva
sham and Alcester. Twenty acres
of arabic land belonging to Messrs.
r. and B. Bomford are travcrsed,
10 feet above the ground by wires
suspended from poles placed at in
tervals of 100 yards. The wires
are insulated so completely that
the current can find its way to
the ground only through the air,
and consequently through the
crops. Unfortunately, there is on
the farm no streamlet capable OF
generating an electric current, and
three horsepower oil engine is
therefore used for this purpose; it
drives a dynamo, the current from
which is converted to a high ten
sion before transmission to the
wires. The engine is run for only
a few hours a day, at intervals
varying in length according to the
state of the weather and the amount
of moisture in the soil. When the
ground is very dry the current APP
pears to be harmful rather than
beneficial, particularly in the case
of peas, beans and clover, when
they have once appeared above the
surface.
Twelve of the acres included in
the experiment have been sown with
wheat, seven with barley and there
are small plots of other crops. In
the case of almost all of them Mr..
Newman confidently expects that
termination will be fastened and
I the yield increased as a result of
the discharge of electricity from
/ the wires. In the case of the
wheat, he says, he will be disap-
pointed if the yield, both of grain
and of straw, be not IS per cent
greater than it would be otherwise,
and if there be not also such an inn
provement in the character of the
grain as will make it equal for
milling purposes to Canadian wheat.
These anticipations are to some
extent based on the results of exper-
iments as to the effects of electric
ity on vegetable growth, which
were carried out by the late PROBES.
scr Lemstrom, of Helsingfors uni.
: versity, in Germany and at Dur.
ham, and also of previous expert.
| mcnts made by MIR. Newman him
. self.
Jointly with the experiments il
Worcestershire, Mr.. Newman i:
prosecuting researches at Bitton
i near Bristol. Last year he obtain
ed very encouraging results from
{ the distribution of current ovei
tomatoes and cucumbers grown in
5 doors, and cabbages, peas, bean!
/ and strawberries grown outside
) Especially marked was the enhanc
ed rapidity with which peas under
r the influence of the current appear
, ed above the ground, as compared
: with those not so stimulated.
: In all previous experiments o
this kind, however, low tension
5 electricity has been employed, anC
} it is believed that the present trial!
: at Iron Cross are the first in which
} a high tension current derived from
: a dynamo has been made use of il
this way. In the unsuccessful ex.
periments made in Russia some
years ago the current was discharg
ed direct into the soil.
The poles and wires at Iron eros;