ELECTRIFIED'WHEAT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 15, 12 October 1918, Page 10

ELECTRIFIED'WHEAT

:; ADDING SACKS TO THE ACRE. I'■■■. The coining British\harvest Will prove [ whether the process of electrifying .seeds,- especially, wheat,; oats,. and bar° .tleyj will be a success or a failure. The {.electrification consists rif soaking the j seed in a weak solution of common salt ! or calcium chloride,, passing a comparatively* small electnic current -through • the seed in soak for a,few hours, and ■ then slowly drying it' in a kiln; The' ; system' ia, the invention of Mr.' H.,:E. i Fry,- of Godmanstone, near Dorchester. ;At present over 2000 acres are under [ treated seed, sojvn "under precisely the jvsame "conditions' as ordinary seed and . side, by'side with it, ' At Triton, Wareham, electrified oats tstand, higher than untreated oats, the .'straw is'stronger, the tillering and the tsizo and weight of ear/are considerably .greater. At Puddletown. the average 'height of treated Benefactor'-wheat is [.'45 inches, of untreated 41, and there : is more than a corresponding difference •in the length and condition of the"ear, enough a cut square f.fard from both portions weighed, equality*. At Piddlehinton the average { lengths are 49 inches and 47' inches, jmd cutting a square yard of each'resulted in .jthe ■ treated crop weighing J7Jlb. arid ,the un£reated 1 4Jlb. As far j as one can judge at presont, the elecj trifyirfg process will add from two to .three sacks to the acre.—London I Daily Mail." ••