Electricity on the Farm.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 May 1922, Page 1

Electricity on the Farm.

LONDON, March 31. Some suggestions as to the use of electricity on the farm were made by Mr R. Bprlase Matthews in a paper read at the Institute of Electrical Engineers. lie considered the highest efficiency in fanning would he reached only by electrical methods, and thp application of electricity to agriculture would do much eventually to raise thy status of the labourer. Electricity which could be used to give light, heat, or drive machines was obviously the simple and flexible form of power service needed <>u the land. Its use would effect a saving in the cow-sheds, improvements in cleanliness, reduction iu waste of milk, cattle food, and other materials by removing the dark and difficult conditions. Klectiic motors could he applied to driving machines for chopping cattle food, operating churns, and for ploughing, and hay , could he dried ' artificially hv electric j fans. There were records of the use of electric heating for the prevention of frost among stores of roots and vegetables, and the milking of cows by elec-trically-operated machinery’ was com. ing into very general use. In New Zealand over 1)000 farms were fitted with electrical apparatus. The use of electric heat had been successfully employed for incubation, and electric light had increased the yield of eggs during that- period of the year when they were of highest market value, j 'Phe per contnge. of fertile eggs hatched | was higher than in natural or other artificial processes ; he had averaged 83.0 per cent, with a 22-JO egg incubator. The production of a high-tension discharge above voting chicks and also laying birds seemed to brace them up and stimulate the birds, but this treatment was as yet iu an experimental stage. Recent experiments had demonstrated that an extremely small amount of electrical power converted in suitable apparatus to a very high tension and discharged from overhead wires strung across the fields had a remarkable effect upon most forms of vegetable life, increasing their yield and in many cases advancing thp period of harvest.