Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
respect to showing that plants badly affected by fungi can be protected. He also observed
the following:
• The lettuce heads in his experiment were generally hardier, healthier, had better
color and were much less affected by the mildew than the lettuce in the control
group.
• In similar experiments performed later, parsnips, salsify ( Tragopogon porrifolius ),
radishes and peas thrived.
• Turnips and beets responded to a lesser degree.
It's worth noting that this particular experiment differs from most of the other ones in that
the force that most likely had an effect was the induced presence of a fixed magnetic field.
But since we don't know whether the wires were insulated or not, it is tough to say.
George Truffault, a follower of the research of Von Maimbray and Barat, wrote an article
entitled “Electricity Controls Tree Growth” for the August 1935 issue of Popular Science .
Init,hedescribeshisabilitytoeitherboost,orstunt,thegrowthoffruittreesinhisorchard
by applying electrical fields 13 .
Knowing that tree crops can also benefit from this technology has many positive
implications. For example, by accelerating the growth of citrus trees, the growers of these
crops could protect themselves against early frosts through earlier harvests.
In addition to all of the experiments performed by individual agricultural scientists and
experimenters, in the 1920s, the United States and United Kingdom both formed
government commissions to investigate the effects of electricity on plant growth. In the
U.K., large-scale field trials on oats by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF)
Committee in 1920 reported increases in yield by 30 to 50 percen t 14 , but as time went
on, a series of crop failures occurred that eventually caused the shutting-down of the
organizations. While some suppose that the disbanding was mostly due to a series of
adverseweatherconditions,anumberofotherreasonsmaybethetruecauseofcropfailure
and organizational failure as well. As for the crop failures, while a series of droughts for
an extended period of time would certainly be one issue, another would be the lack of
understanding regarding the long-term effects of earth battery-based stimulation 15 , which
was the primary method used at the time. The other issue that may have affected the
organizationasawholewasthegrowinginfluenceofthesyntheticfertilizerindustry,which
may have seen the practice of electroculture as a threat. 16
Search WWH ::




Custom Search