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that electrical discharge applied only during the first month of the growing season may be as effective as continued treatment throughout the season! Another application of high voltage AC to agriculture was described in Popular Science monthly for November 1927 and January 1928. A captioned photograph read: "How Electric Plow Wars Against Crop Pests: The wires of this plow, invented by L. Roe of Pittsburgh...flash 103,000 volts of current between the plow shares to kill all pests in the soil." In 1939, Fred Opp of Costa Mesa, California, produced a garden soil cultivator that used high-tension eleetric current to increase the nitrogen content and thus improve its fertility. An illustrated article in Popular Science monthly (October 1939) described "A generator with an output of 110 volts AC, a storage battery for exciting the armature field, and a transformer that steps up the cur- rent to 15,000 volts...mounted on a walking-type garden tractor equipped with a small gasoline motor that drives both the tractor and the generator. Current is conducted through a pair of elec- trodes to furrows in the soil made by a cultivator. As the elec- trodes are dragged along, soil falls on top of them, making the contact.” The same method was incorporated into the Electrovator invent- ed by Gilbert M. Baker of Mendota, California, in 1946. As reported in the September issue of Popular Science, "It is a trailer containing a gasoline-driven 12.5 kilovolt-ampere generator and a special transformer. Two rakes with copper electrodes for teeth transmit the high-voltage, low-amperage current to weeds as the machine is drawn at one mile an hour by a jeep or tractor. The weeds burn, from the tops to root-tips, leaving the land ready for new crops. The treatment can be repeated for successive growth...” The treatment of seeds in an electric ficld before sowing gives a consistent increase in yield of 15% and up. According to experi- menters L. A. Azin and F. Y. Izakov, "It must be noted that elec- tric fields are of two types: an electrostatic field and a corona dis- charge field. The electric field of the corona discharge differs from the electrostatic field by possessing considerable heterogene- ity and by the precession of space charges of the same sign in its working zone, Because of this, any particle, including a seed, receives a charge of the same sign in such a field. The electrostat- ic field is homogeneous and does not possess space charges, although charging may take place here because a seed, if placed on the metal electrode, acquires a charge by contact, correspond- ing in its sign to the polarity of the electrode.” Soviet researchers N. F. Kozhevnikova and S. A. Stanko report- ed on their “experiments over a number of years to study the effect of an alternating electric field on the sowing properties of the seeds, the growth and development of plants, and the yield. It has been found that after treatment in optimal-conditions, the yield of green mass is increased by 10-30%, and the yield of grain by 10- 20%. Besides the increased yield, treatment of seeds with an alternating current may improve other economically valuable properties of cultivated crops: the leaf cover of the plants may be increased, the vegetative period may be shortened, the absolute weight of the grain may be increased, and so on..." The seeds were treated with 2-4 kV/cm intensity of the electric field, with 8 kV on the electrodes of the working chamber. Exposure was for 30 seconds or one hour. It was found that’ if treated seeds were kept for 10 to 17 days before sowing, the mature plants would contain up to 86% more chlorophyll and 50% more carotenoids than the controls! (Ref.: Applied Elecgrical Phenomena, no. 2, March-April 1966.) Other Soviet scientists have reported similar results achieved under various conditions of corona discharge treatments of seeds: "After electric treatment of this type, an increase in the germina- tion rate and, in particular, in the energy of germination was observed. The improvement was especially marked in the proper- ties of seeds located on the negative electrode during treatment. In this case, an increase in yield of 2-6 centners/hectare was obtained with nearly all the conditions of treatment used. The increase in yield was smaller for plants whose sceds were treated on the posi- tive electrode. Corn seeds, treated in a constant electric field, gave good yields which developed rapidly. The yield of green mass was 30 above the control level. It was shown that green tomatocs ripen faster if they are placed in an electric field close to the posi- tive electrode or between the poles of a magnet, especially close to the south pole, "The viability and the fertilising power of the pollen at first increased and then decreased as the duration of its treatment in a constant electric field was lengthened. In optimal conditions this fertilising power was increased from twice to four times. The usc of high voltage electric fields for the treatment of pollen has led to the modification of its bioelectrical properties and has made it pos- sible to influence the fertilisation process. The setting rate of fruit has been increased during hybridisation of varieties of more dis- tant forms, and the failure to cross distant species of fruiting plants . Fig. 1. Scheme of the first and sec- ond series of experiments: 1) coro- na electrode; 2) seed; 3) earthed electrode. Fig. 2. Scheme of the experiment to study the effect of electromagnetic radiations on seed; 1) earthed electrode; 2) corona electrode; 3) seed; 4) sheet of dielectric. Fig. 3. Scheme of the third series of experiments: 1) corona electrode; 2) seed; 3) layer of insulation; 4) earthed electrode. 1 + a Fig. 2 Fig. 3 NEXUS¢41 FIGURE 4: CORONA DISCHARGE SYSTEMS oo eS — FEBRUARY - MARCH 1994