JOSEPH P. JAMES. 
Washington, Jan. 20, 1892.

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ELECTRICITY IN AGRICULTURE.  By CLARENCE D. WARNER.

It is well known that currents of electricity exist in the atmosphere.  Clouds are charged and discharged.  There is a constant change of electricity from earth to air and from air to earth, the latter being the great reservoir for all electricity.  Hills, mountain peaks, trees, high chimneys, spires, in fact all points elevated above the earth’s surface assist greatly in charging and discharging the atmosphere.  Again, if two iron rods are driven into the earth and connected by a copper wire with an electrometer in the circuit, the instrument is almost immediately affected, showing that currents of electricity are running through the ground.  Now, what is the function of these atmospheric and ground electric currents?  Many scientists are agreed that certain forms of precipitation are due to electrical action; but my observations have led me to believe conclusively that electricity is a potent factor in the economy of nature, and has more to do with the growth and development of plants than has hitherto been known.  Davy succeeded in the decomposition of the alkalies, potash and soda, by means of electric currents.  In our laboratories, water and ternary compounds are rapidly decomposed by the battery, and we may reasonably suppose that that which is effected in our laboratories by artificial means takes place in the great laboratory of nature on a grander and more extended scale.

Plant food is carried throughout the plant by means of the flow of sap; these currents circulate through all the rootlets and center, as it were, in the stalk, carrying their tiny burdens of various elements and depositing them in their proper places.  That this phenomenon of circulation is due to electricity cannot be doubted.  Most plants grow more rapidly during the night than in the day.  May not the following be a reason for this?

We have already mentioned how electric currents pass from air to earth and vice versa; at night the plant is generally covered with dew and the plant itself becomes a good conductor, and, consequently, currents of electricity pass to each through this medium, and during the passage convert soil elements into plant food and stimulate the upward currents to gather up the dissolved elements and carry them to their proper places.

From the time electricity became a science, much research has been made to determine its effect, if any, upon plant growth.  The earlier investigations gave in many cases contradictory results.  Whether this was due to a lack of knowledge of the science on the part of the one performing the experiments, or some defect in the technical applications, we are not prepared to say; but this we do know, that such men as Jolabert, Nollet, Mainbray and other eminent physicists affirmed that electricity favored the germination of seeds and