ELECTRICITY AND CROPS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 227, 13 June 1918, Page 8

ELECTRICITY AND CROPS

| GEEAT THINGS-EXPECTED.

According to Dr. Charles Mercier, who has contributed the statement to the London "Times," great and startling improvements in agriculture are on the point of being introduced. The improvements referred to are two. and both owe their efficacy to the application of electricity. It has been known for «>me time that the direct application of electricity to Homo growing crops has it remarkable increase of yield, but tile expense of the application has. rendered the method unprofitable. The journal of the British Board of Agriculture now reports that a melhod has been devised which overcomes this objection. This meth<m has been very successful experimentally, but has scarcely yel passed, the trial stage. It is, however, full of hope. The other improvement is a method of treating by electricity seed before it is sown, and this has passed the experimental stage. Farmers on a large scale who have tried it experimentally ih previous seasons are now laying down plant to treat; the whole of their seed corn, wheat, barley, and oat.s Owing to the liberality ol the Ministry of Munitions, acting at the instance of the British Board of Agriculture, installations, at which farmers can have their seed treated by experts, have been erected at several centres, and are capable of treating some 30,000 sacks per month. The increase of yield from seed so treated, though not as great as the increase from electrification of the growing crops, is vet very great, ranging from 20 to as much as E0 per cent.; and, as has been aaid, it is past the experimental stage, and is in full operation.