Vegetables and Sunlight.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 14 August 1914, Page 2

Vegetables and Sunlight.

The interesting theory that when ■ we eat vegetables we are consum- ' ing sunlight was propounded by Pro- ' fessor J. H. Priestly, of Leeds ' University, at a meeting of the North of England Agricultural So- ' ciety in Leeds. Every meal time, said the professor, saw us deriving J energy from the sun with the aid of the green leaf, either directly as ' vegetarians or indirectly through • the medium of a vegetable animal. We drew upon stores of imprisoned sunlight. It could readily be seen, he. continued, that the flat green leaf was an effective trap for the sunlight. By means of its pigments it absorbed and utilised the red and blue rays, the former of which were of great utility to the plant" itself. This opened up an interesting possibility. During the darker months of the year could not something be done by means of artificial light to encourage growth, especially of indoor plants ? .Recently, proceeded Professor i'riestly, Miss Dudgeon, ' at Dumfries, had obtained astonishing results along- these lines, using a Cooper-Hewitt mercury lamp, with its bluish light. She had obtained remarkable growth in many plants. They often showed a tendency to run too much to foliage, but this' winter she had been able to check this largely by the use of a light containing a greater proportion of red rays. The matter was still experimental, but the experiments were certainly of a nature to be interesting to those interested in the forcing of plants.