SOWING BY AIR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 80, 21 April 1937, Page 15

SOWING BY AIR

'Planes Used in U.S. Farmins 300 ACRES A DAY Eice planting by aeroplane is not a stunt; it's a business that employs over 20 aviators and their planes for several weeks every spring while the rice crop is put in, says an American exchange. A large part of the crop in California is now seeded by plane. The planes are usually hired to sow at a flat rate per acre, and cover from 25Q to 300 acres daily. Two men hold flags opposite each other at the end of the field, and the aeroplane pilot uses them as a guide in shooting from end to end of the field as he pullsf the trigger and evenly spills his hopper of seed rice on to the ground below in a lane about 15 fet wide. Two rounds and he is down again. A truck backs up, and the pilot and truck driver empty five more saclcs of rice seed into the front coclcpit for another seeding fiight. The advantage of aeroplane sowing of rice are many, chief of which are speed of sowing and the ability to sow in the water. In sowing the seed in water is has been found that less seed was needed, the seed was protected from birds, less labour was required to prepare the seed bed and the possibilities of getting good stands of rice were better, as less seed is covered with soil. The same planes are sometimes used as "hawks" to chase the greedy mudhens and wild fowl away frim the rice fields. Aeroplanes for dusting and fo? spraying are widely used in this western region, and fill a yory iinportant and rapidly growing place. Another use which might grow into large .proportions is distributing grass seed and fertiliser from aeroplanes on rough aud hilly land, where any other maehine would be totally impractical.