Evening star., 1939-01-01
'Intoxitant' 10 Speed
Growth May Shift
Truck Gardens North
Vegetables in AIoska
Moy Also Be Made
Possible by Discovery
~ Stan Correspondent Of The star.


covery Of = way to make plants
mildly intoxicated-about the stage
Of a man when his tongue begins
to loosen up-may shift the line Of
truck gardening two weeks further
north, make possible the growing
Of essential vegetables in the short
summers OF Alaska or Labrador,
keep golf greens and lawns green
during summer droughts, and in
some cases make possible two crops
where only one has grown before.
1t was announced before botanists
of the American Association for the
Advancement Of Science here yes
terday by DR.. H. G.. DuBuy and
DR.. H. L. Steir Of the University
Of Maryland.
Using various barbiturates, en-
ployed in medicine as sleeping pow
derS, and q chemical substance
known as thiurea they have been
able to speed up the growth and
development of both tomatoes and
lettuce by at least two weeks, and
believe that the same method may
be used with practically all other
vegetables. In one sense they have
made spring, so far as it applies
to gardening, two weeks earlier.
Significant Development.
This development, hailed by plant
physiologists here as one of the most
significant recently made in the
field of agriculture, came out Of
direct analogy between plants and
human beings. DR.. Theodore Kap-
panyi, professor of pharmacology at
Georgetown University, has been
experimenting for some years on the
physiological effects Of barbiturates
and methods of combating their
fatal effects when taken In too large
doses. He found that their physi-
illogical action was much the same
as that of alcohol, to which they
are chemically related. First they
create an elated feeling. Sometimes
this amounts to extreme excitement.
Then a person taking them begins
to get drowsy and soon falls into
a deep sleep-in a sense comparable
to being dead drunk. A little bit
too much and he never wakes up.
DR.. Kappanyi suggested to the
College Park plant Psychologists that
they might find somewhat similar
effect with plants-if they could get
them to take the sleeping powders
and not extend them to dead
drunk" doses. They devised a meth
cd of doing this by mixing the vari-
Gus barbiturates in a proportion OF
about one part in a million with tai
cum powder. The tomato and lettuce
seeds are then mixed with this pow
der and planted.
Stimulates Growth.
The talcum powder, they found,
gives off the sleeping drugs to the
seeds very slowly. They only get
enough, for about two weeks after
they are planted, to keep the plant
protoplasm within them mildly ex-
cited. When the seedlings are about
two weeks old they are taken up
and replanted in soil mixed with the
barbiturate-talcum powder combi-
ton so that they continue to stay
tight"
With the talcum powder DR.. Du-
Buy also mixes various of the plant
hormones known as auxins. These
have the effect Of stimulating the
growth of shoots and initiating the
growth of roots. The barbiturates
and the thiurea have precisely the
opposite effect, the University of
Maryland plant physiologist ex-
planned, Of stimulating the growth
of roots and initiating the growth
of shoots and the development of
buds.
For some time plant psychologists
have suspected that buds are formed
and plants brought into blossom by
a hormone as yet unidentified-the
so-called 'blossoming hormone. :"
Drs. DuBuy and Steir believe that
they have succeeded in causing the
plant itself to produce extraordinary
supplies Of this hormone, probably
by speeding up the metabolic pro-
cesses of the plant protoplasm. At
any rate, they say, there is some
effect on the protoplasm which
causes the homone formation. If
the analogy to barbiturates and al
cOhol in man were carried out 1t
would actually be a slowing down
of metabolism, since the effects of
both are depressant on the physio-
logical system.
Soviet Scientists.
The barbiturates are closely re-
lated to thfurea, identical with urea
which has been found potent stim-
ulant for animal cell growth except
for the substitution of sulphur for
an oxygen atom in the molecule.
The whole process of speeding up
budding and the formation of fruit
and vegetable bodies is known as
"vernalization'-literally advancing
spring. Research along this line was
started about 10 years ago by Soviet
scientists when Russia first began
its conquest Of the bleak Arctic arc
around the White Sea in order to
take advantage of its rich mineral
resources. With inadequate trans
portation, 1t was necessary to find
way of supplying settlers with
fresh vegetables and fruits in order
to settle any very large population
there.
They found that good deal could
be accomplished in the short grow
ing season available by first allow
ing seeds to germinate and then
refrigerating them for time. When
again planted they grew very rap
idly. The relationship between this
process and the one discovered at
College Park Is obscure, but appar-
emily cold and' sleeping powders
produce the same physiological re-
suits by different mechanisms.
Announcement Is Dramatic.
They have had especially note