In the year 1957 a certain Wisconsin
florist Arthur Locker, piped music into his greenhouses. He noted that the
plants grew straighter, bloomed more plentifully germinated rapidly.While
that was going on a Canadian farmer Eugene Canby found that the violin sonatas
of Bach produced a crop 66% greater than the average plot. In 1960 George Smith
who was from Normal, Illinois conducted a scientific experiment. The first of its
kind. He planted corn and soybeans in two greenhouses after that he played Gershwin
24/7 in one of the greenhouses. Expectantly the entertained plants weighed 40%
more than the musical deprived plants.
In the 1970’s Dorothy Retallack
began an experiment testing marigolds and beans listing to music. She noted the
plants which were listening to Brahms and Beethoven grew towards the speakers,
but those listening to Fudge and Hendrix clearly grew away from the speakers. Plants
plainly show disapproval. When she rotated the pots, the plants reacted in the
same way; they either craved to escape or embrace the music. Thoughtfully she selected
a Spanish folk tune, one version with string instruments and another with
drums. The drums caused a ten-degree lean away from the speakers. Interestingly
the plants that were entertained by the string instruments leaned fifteen
degrees toward the speaker.
According to the testing that followed,
the music of Bach had the most profound effect. The plants which were exposed
to folk and country western music, showed little to no difference compared to
silent groups. Jazz proved the most complex. Daily the plants grew towards the music
since suspiciously they grew scrawny roots they needed a lot more water. In closing
if the plants “listening” to jazz had scrawny roots, just think what it’s doing
to our minds!
