The mirror., 1919-09-11
AN EYE IN THE AIR
Aircraft to Search Out Forest Fires and Patrol Outlaw
Cotton Fields
By Robert M. Moulton

M. Moulton
extinguishing fires have been used
with good results.
At present the only observation
balloon used in connection with
forest fire patrolling is the one
maintained at the Arcadia field,
near Los Angeles. This balloon
is sent aloft to a height of about
5000 feet and remains there from
Z a. m. until 6 p. M. In case of
fire report from the balloon OBJ
server is telephoned to the army
balloon school and transmitted to
the forest service at Los Angeles.
Another plan to be tested later in
the summer is transporting fire
fighters by dirigibles from which
ladders can be lowered to the
ground.
The airplane to spy out hidden
cotton fields has proved successful.
1t is the result of an experiment
carried out by the federal horti-
cultural board of the department
of agriculture. In southern Texas,
where the devastating pink boil
worm of cotton has been trying to
invade the United States from
Mexico, there are cotton.free
zones, declared by law as barriers
against the progress of the worm.
But few misguided farmers feel
that their rights have been in
fringed and have developed a ten
dency to become outlaw cotton
planters. Much of the country is
heavily timbered, roads are neither
plentiful nor good in many places.
and it has been possible for an
outlaw planter to tuck away few
acres of cotton in some nook of
the woods beyond probability of
discovery by ordinary means,
though the department of agricul-
ture has been making diligent eff
forts to spot every stalk of cotton
in the quarantined areas.
Last year when workers of the
federal horticultural board we're
on the ground, they tried out the
airplane for scouting work. In
this way Inspector Hensley of the
board discovered seven outlaw cot
ton fields in the heavily wooded
country along the Trinity river
and around Galveston bay which
had escaped discovery.
January of this year the work
of locating cotton fields in the OBJ
servation zone by aerial patrol was
officially inaugurated and has been
in regular process ever since. Two
flights were made later in January
for the purpose of obtaining a
panoramic view of the territory
bordering the quarantine lines, to
note the character and extent of
any forests or wooded areas which
might act as a natural barrier to
the spread of the pink bollworm
by fight of the moth, as we'll as to
secure some idea of the value of
aerial observations in connection
with chronological scouting and
mapping.
These flights were made at an
altitude of from 1,500 to 1000
feet. At this elevation on a clear
day distinct vision could be had
of the country over range of 30
miles, and cultivated fields, build
ings, she'll roads, railway lines,
creeks, and the character of wooded
areas, whether pine or deciduous.
could be easily distinguished. At
the normal speed of the airplane-
Is miles an hour = the ground
moves so slowly that the observer
has time to get a complete picture
of the area and easily to distin-
guish cotton from corn fields.
Inspector Hensley is enthusias-
tic in the belief that the airplane
will tremendously facilitate all
such scouting and reconnaissance
work, including mapping.
None of us can buy good will;
we must earn it.