The Adair County news., 1911-08-09
MASSAGE YOUR CROPS.

Experiments Abroad Show That Plants
Love Electricity.
There is a field of wheat near Eve
sham which is like no other field OF
wheat in England. says the London
Graphic.
ever. there is a field of oats which
looks very much like it. On both these
fields there are rows of rough tele-
graph poles. about seventy yards apart
and some hundred yards between the
rows.
On the top Of each pole is an in
sulator ten times the size of those seen
on ordinary telegraph poles. The in
sulators carry the usual telegraph
wire, and extended between the rows
there are strands of thin wire. fasten-
ed to the telegraph wire. about ten
yards apart.
Very soon there will he difference.
perfectly visible to the passerby, be-
tween the part of the crop which Is
below the wires and the part which is
not The difference is due to dis
charges of electricity from the curious
network 1t is connected to a wire
which runs to a little shed and from
that shed to dynamo at the farm.
But it is what happens in the little
shed that matters. The current from
the dynamo is transformed to high
tension and rectitied by Sir Oliver
Lodges we'll known valves. They look
rather like glass fire extinguishers. and
they glow in various tints
There are about twenty-one miles of
wire on the induction coil. Although
it is easy to produce in the shed tie
lightings and cracklings associated
with wireless telegraphy. nothing or
dinarily happens but slight sizzling
and a much greater generation OF
ozone than is pleasant.
The field wires are kept running al
the high tension of 100000 volts.
Walking below the network barehead-
! ed one feels sensation as If brush
ing against spider webs.
For five years now this "crop shock
ing has been going on.
The result seems to have been in
the case of wheat at Evesham an in
crease in crop of from 23 to 80 pei
cent. Last year the increase was moi
more than % per cent. but the electric
discharges had been much weaker thar
! in previous years AT Balmakewar
: there has been a marked difference il
/ oats.
/ Experiments have also been conduct
! ed with strawberries and tomatoes al
! Evesham, again with encouraging re
! suits as to yield. One year the cleo
| trified strs W berries were found to De
much sweeter than usual
ANY one who has a dynamo or &C
cess to an electric cable could beg1r
1 experiments in electrification on be
tween FIVE and ten acres at an expendl
ture of about $500 To deal with sixty
acres the expenditure would be about
$1,000. Apparently what electrical
ton does is to give the plants kind
of electrical massage. That was Sill
Oliver Lodges phrase. The discharge:
are not needed on fine. sunny days
but in dull weather they take the place
Of sunshine.
OF course the whole problem OF the
nutrition of plants is obscure. 1t L
perfectly clear that this discharge Of
high tension electricity has done some
thing to the crops treated. but wha
exactly Is In some doubt.
So far there is no evidence Of shock
ed plants suffering from premature
exhaustion due to overwork. Indeed
there is some reason for believing tina
the effect of electrifcation Is to giv'
the plant tone and go.
An American worker has shown tina
electrical discharges help the micro
organisms Of the soil. so electrificatioI
nay be doing something In that direc
don too.