ELECTRO-CULTURE

Evening Star, Issue 19663, 16 September 1927, Page 11

ELECTRO-CULTURE

A NEW PLOUGHING PROCESS

In a New York paper just to hand is an account of a further invention in regard to electro-culture, the science which deals with the direct application of electricity to soil, Many Dunedin gardeners who have been out to see Sir A. E. Hayman’s experiments at Anderson's Bay will doubtless be interested in the statement, which runs thus:—

A rapid and effective means of destroying prickly pear and other Australian insect and weed pestsjs being demonstrated on farms by a New York millionaire, who is financially interested in tho invention. Fanners arc .calling tho invention “ radio ploughing, _ since an electric plough is used. Tho inventor calls the process electro-culture. Ho insisfs that it will not only destroy pests, but make fertilisers unnecessary. The inventor, H. E. Milton Rowe, explains that “ the plough is so constructed that there arc two plough blades. As the blades pass through the soil an intense electric field is created between them, producing an effect like lightning. The first treatment has a deadly effect on insect and small animal lite. A second treatment is necessary to kill weeds. The process is claimed to be ■capable of exterminating many pests the Australian farmers are fighting, including tbo prickly pear. In adjoining fields arc shown various crops hal" treated or normally half-ploughed by tho machine. The latter are free from weeds and bugs, despite recent heavy rains; while others, despite the greatest care, are yielding a thick crop of weeds. Rowe points out that he is growing the first crop of bugless potatoes ever seen in the locality. The power for the plough is generated by a tractor that pulls the plough., It is no more costly to operate than an ordinary tractor plough. Rowo says: “I will explode the theorv of crop rotation by using the same crop several times in tho same field. Mv machine fuses nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon with tho moisture in the soil, producing carbonate ammonia, by winch substance Nature maintains all plant life. I have already rejected large offers from fertiliser companies socking to buy tho invention to keep it off tho market, because it will make fertilisers as obsolete as tho old-fash-ioned grain Hail.”