Evening journal., 1911-08-14
MASSAGE YOUR CROPS.
Experiments Abroad Show That Plants
Love Electricity.

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There is a field of wheat near Eve
sham whici is like no other field Of
wheat in England. says the London
Graphic.
Up north. at Balmakewan. how
ever. there Is a field Of oats which
looks very much like 1t. 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 win be a 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 a 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 rectihed by Sir Oliver
Lodges well known valves They look
rather like glass fire extinguishers. and
they glow in various tints.
fnhara orsa ob,uf fr,~ar,fr~- ,,.r. r,,f1oc %
wire on the induction coil. Although
it is easy to produce in the shed the
nghtings and cracklings associated
with wireless telegraphy. nothing or
dinarily happens but a slight sizzling
and a much greater generation Of
ozone than is pleasant
The field wires are kept running at
the high tension of 100000 volts.
Walking below the network barehead-
ed one feels a 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 % to 30 per
cent. Last year the increase was not
more than % per cent. but the electric
discharges had been much weaker than
in previous years. At Balmakewan
there has been a marked difference in
oats.
Experiments have also been conduct
ed with strawberries and tomatoes at
Evesham. again with encouraging re-
suits as to yield. One year the cleo
trified Strawberries were found to be
much sweeter than usual
Any one who has a dynamo or ac-
cess to an electric cable could begin
experiments in electrifcation on be-
tween five and ten acres at an expendi-
ture Of about $500. To deal with sixty
acres the expenditure would be about
$1,000. Apparently what electrifca-
ton does is to give the plants a kind
Of electrical massage. That was Sir
Oliver Lodges phrase. The discharges
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 is
perfectly clear that this discharge OF
high tension electricity has done some
thing to the crops treated. but what
exactly is in scme 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 that
the effect Of electrifcation is to give
the plant tone and go.
An American worker has shown that
electrical discharges help the micro
organisms Of the SOIL so electrihcation
may be doing something in that direc-
ton too.