Stefan's interesting words on Brix reminded me that French farmers
have been known to remark that strawberries used to be half the size
and productivity but twice the flavor.
    Similar remarks have been made in the US.  A study of tomatoes
picked 'mature green' and ripened vs those vine-ripened showed a
decrease in not only beta-carotene but lycopene during ripening of
the greenies, an increase for the vinies.

    Another, very cheap device that may be useful is paper
chromatography as done by E E Pfeiffer in the 1930s, and by
biodynamic folks since.  The findings are often quite striking, and
more convincing than Kirlian photography.

   There's an Ohio dowser who has been used successfully in
archeological digs, and dowses for all manner of ends, including the
analysis of a highway's high accident rate.  Here, however, as he
told me, "The rod isn't magic; I'M magic."

   If a device is either cheap or internal, it should be tried.  I draw the line
at radionics, both costly and derived from a World War 2 vintage ESP
device patented by a Mr Hieronymus, still alive last I checked.      Pet