Mrs.Dorothy Retallack is a perfectly pleasant American lady who kills plants. she does it by playing rock music for them.
When Mrs. Retallack went to college, most of her classes were in music. But she also took a science course. to pass in science she had to do some teacher thought she should try experiments using music.
What in the word can you do with music and plants? Asked Mrs. Retallack. Then she had an idea. She wold play music for plants.
She planted seeds in small cups, each filled with the same kind of soil. She planted both garden and house planted -some vege- tables and some flowers. when the plants started to grow, Mrs. Retallack divided them into groups of five. She placed these groups of plants in big closed cabinets on wheels. All the plants were put on the same watering schedule. The light, heat, and air were kept the same in all the cabinets.
The only difference between the cabinets was sound, or the of it. At one side of each cabinet was a loudspeaker. Through it, sound would be sent to the group of plants inside only one of the cabinets the plants would grow in silence.
Mrs. Retallack started her tests with piano tones. She gave some plants long sessions of these tones. Then they collapsed. Tn three weeks all were dead. But plants that had Pianos for just a short time grew well.
For the second test Mrs. Retallack used music from two different radio stations. One station played rock music. The other played soft music and hymns.
The group of plants receiving the rock station would not grow. The petunias the group would not bloom. In a mouth all plants given rock music were dead. The plants given soft music were strong and healthy. The petunias among them had lovely blooms. The plants growing silence were straight and well. But they were not as lush or strong-rooted as plants give soft music.
When she saw what had happened, Mrs.Retallack began to wonder what other people had found out about sound and plants. She learned that in india scientists had tried to increase plant yield with music. In canada sounds of wheat. In the United to help the grow of wheat. In the united states, when scientists had broadcast city noise to plants, their growth was cut almost in half. Another experimenter was in the United states had found that plants seem to be able to show fear, worry, and even love.
Because of her hard word, Mrs. Retallack passed in science with high marks. And she kept on thinking abouth music and plants.
She had always believed that music could heal and noise could hurt. After seeing what music did to plants, she wanted to learn more. She made up her mind to spend the rest of her life studying what sound can do to plants- and to people.
Mre. Retallack had seen that some sounds seemed to help plants. She felt that maybe there were sounds that would help people. She had seen that soft music seemed to be better for plants than complete sillence of musical notes that would strengthen people improve their growth, and heal their illnesses.
If there really are such sounds, whoever finds them will do the world a great service. Perhaps in the future many others will do the world a great service. Perhaps in the future many other will join Mrs. Retallack , studying the effects of sound on people- and playing music for plants.