Abstract
PROF. HENDRICK has described in the Scottish Journal of Agriculture (vol. i., 1918, pp. 41–51) the results of some extensive experiments on the treatment of growing crops with an overhead electric discharge. The work was carried out during the years 1913, 1914, 1916, and 1917 on Mr. Low's farm of Mains of Luther, Kincardineshire. The apparatus was that of the Agricultural Electric Discharge Co., Ltd., consisting of an interrupter, induction coil, and Lodge valves. The overhead installation consisted of a number of fine wires (the diameter is not stated) arranged 15 ft. apart, and alternately bare and cotton-covered; these wires were about 11 ft. from the ground at the centre and 15 ft. near the supports. The experimental area consisted of ten plots, each 0.56 acre, half of each plot being electrified and half used as a control; the control areas lay south-east of the electrified ones. In 1914 a galvanised-wire netting (1/2-in. mesh) was placed between the electrified and control areas. A five-course rotation was followed (turnips, barley, hay, potatoes, and oats), and the ten plots were so arranged that in each season “two whole plots were under each of the crops of the rotation.” In 1917 the treated barley showed an increase in grain of 31 per cent, pver the control, but this result was not obtained in other years, and the general conclusion is arrived at that no persistent improvement was obtained in any of the crops grown.
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Treatment of Crops by Electric Discharges . Nature 101, 495 (1918). https://doi.org/10.1038/101495a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/101495a0