Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1912-01-12

- half. All the same, the prog
ress of vegetation on this little plot will be
watched with keen interest FOR 1t may point
the way to helping the farmers Of the future
in important respects and even may be the
means of making some of them independent
of climate.
OF course it is not sought to convey the i'm
preston that the present undertaking by the
United States department of agriculture at It's
most in portant experiment farm is the first
effort to make electricity useful on the farm
Public as we'll as private enterprise invaded
that field long ago and thus we lind TO-DAY
many farmers in various parts of the country
developing electricity for home consumption
by means of power plants right on the prem
fses the energy for generating being supplied
by the gasoline engines which are becoming
so common in the rural districts, or through
the Harvesting of water power which has been
done successfully on so many farms. More
over the electricity thus generated Is not used
merely for illumination, etc., inside the farm
buildings. Progressive farmers and darymen
have adapted the twentieth century power to
many tasks that had formerly to be done by
human hands-as, for example, milking and
churning and feed cutting.
But Uncle Sans new venture In electric
farming pursues quite a different path. This
latest function of the magic current Is not to
supplant manual labor. but to assist nature
To partiCular1Ze, IN popular 10TH, II may De
explained that the idea Is to have electricity
supplement sunlight in its influence upon
growing crops. The artificial warmth and
glow will be called into play as proxy for the
burning beams from the orb above days
when there is no sunlight and in the morn
fngs and evenings of the short winter days
when old Sol is working shorter hours than
in midsummer. Perhaps electricity cannot
ever be expected to prove great a stimulus
,>Io re- iS fIJI o.
preliminary experiments have proven that 1t
will help some and the object of Uncle Sans
nresent undertaking is to determine just how
much assistance electricity will render under
the conditions of soil and climate, etc. which
confront the average American farmer.
The reader might naturally suppose, if he
hasn't been informed otherwise, that If Uncle
Sam was going to employ electricity to coun-
terfeit sunbeams he would do 1t by calling
into use powerful electric lights, which seem
To be about the next best thing to sunlight
IN brilliancy Well that the way it was
done by several of the leading scientists or
Europe who have rather gotten ahead or us
IN such tests They hung big arc lamps In
greenhouses and they heightened the growing
dav for plants and vegetables by flooding the
hot houses with light for several hours after
shutdown each day. The result was that one
prominent foreigner has produced splendid
strawberries in a much shorter time than
would have been possible had nature been al
lowed to take her own course, ana our own
Cornell university in New York state was
equally successful in hurrying the growth OF
lettuce radshes and other vegetables py thls
same method. But Uncle Sam is not going tc
follow blindlv in this beaten path. He is tax
ing new tack
The principle of Uncle Sans new "eleculc
farm'-if we may call one miniature wheat
Ae1d q farm-is to employ the electric current
,tseIf and not the electric lamps to spur nature
IN her work This is interesting In itseH ana
tho nroiect will be of added value IN lts re-
suits from the fact that the growing unue.
electricity is to go out OF doors lhsIeao u
in the artificial atmosphere OF not mousse
Moreover in order TO approximate aNe4a3o
conditions the experts of Uncle Sans bureau
- I,t industry have chosen as the scene
of +beir experiment not a prize farm, put
+roc+ on the largest experiment farm OF the
United States department of agriculture Iocar
cd near Arlington, Virginia rms iano was
formerly a part of the historic estate oi noo
ert e Lee. the Confederate general put II was
neglected for many years AFTER .he wa GU
Il cannot be said to offer more IMAM a'el"e ,
opportunities for tilling, II tney oe 'is'' So
The appearance of Uncle Sans "eiec'rlc
60 ;s VOL calculated to rouse the CURIOSITY
80 INV chance farmer riding along the ROAD
oror If ba did not see the warning SIGNS eau
tionipp him that he must not get within io ooa
feet of the wires carrying curreh' - III
voIts-electrcity powerful enough u
sorts of damage if given the oppoi ~
what the farmer beholds is a pio"eo 60
s $50" ~ ;ntarvals of a couple of rods with
slender wooden poles about seven lsee ~
height. At one corner of the Held Is 'n sm s
called power house" OF TINS ,sim wire con.
- h,,i1dinp from which leads wire Gun
,oa+t,, ,r;tb the wires of nearby lhter ul o,an
, nqGins svs.e,a If the farmer looks close ne