Evening star., 1927-08-28
BY RAWSON WARREN.
y airplane was making

~ racket up in the sky over on'
"A of the university buildings, ant
4 the crowd of students were
straining their necks looking
up at it. One of the professors came
along and said:
Young gentlemen. that wonderfui
thing up there suggests many ques
tions TO us. and one of them is this
why is China, with all her wonderful
resources, so backward, while the
Western world is advancing so taSt
in its thought and development? III
you have studied history. you will see
that the answer is also suggested by
that flying bird and it is this: Be
cause China has been 'content to 40
things in the same old way, while
the Western world is constantly try
ing to accomplish its ends by some
new and better way.
A farmer boy among the students
exclaimed:
IF that machine will help the rest
OF our industrial life, | believe 1t
would help the farmer and everything
else pertaining to agriculture.
Bunk said medical student,
nearby, you might as we'll try to
serve community stricken with
smallpox by floating over it with an
sirpiane as to think of helping crops
10y flying over them. l will admit
your airplane can kill mosquitoes in
swamps and marshlands by spreading
germ killing fluid. but how do you eX-
pect to help your crops with flying
machine?'
Useful i'm Blight Work.
And so it might seem to those un-
acquainted with the possible activities
of an airplane in the treatment of crop
nd
cotton boil weevil wheat rust, the
brown rot of our great prune orchards
and plum trees. the peach leaf curl
that attacks our vast peach orchards
and even the apple scab so injurious
10 our great apple orchards.
But, as matter of fact. the air
plane already has become of great
value to agriculture in the investiga
ton and prevention of crop diseases
and insect pests.
The principal enemies of the ce-
reals grown in our country are the
leaf rust, which attacks wheat, rye
and barley; the stripe rust. which at
tacks wheat; the crown rust, which
attacks oats, and the black stem
rust. which attacks wheat. oats. rye
and barley. These crop diseases do
enormous damage in the great States
of Minnesota, North and South Da-
kota, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming
Iowa and the western provinces of
Canada, a territory which produces
Spring wheat as distinguished from
Winter wheat grown farther South.
1t has long been known that stem
rust occasionally breaks out in this
territory, resulting in the loss of mil
lions of bushels of wheat in one sea-
son, and this within the confines of
only two or three States. In one year
stem rust alone has destroyed ap-
proximately 100000 900 bushels of
wheat in our Spring wheat States and
the prairie provinces of Canada. 1t
Is generally known that other pests
as well, such, for example. as the
European barberry, may initiate such
epidemics.
Planes Detect Spores.
Previous to 1921 agricultural ex-
perts were inclined to believe that
wind-blown spores of stem rust, un
der favorable weather conditions,
might drift into the Spring wheat
territory of the North from the
Southern wheatfields of Texas, Okla.
homa and even from Mexico. How
ever. up to this time. while it was
known that living spores of rusts.
blights, smuts and other pests were
of the earth. it was not known that
they existed farther up than 10000
feet. But during the Summers of
1921 and 1922 the United States De.
partment of Agriculture. with the
war Department cooperating, made
airplane flights over Texas, Okla
homa, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois,
Wyoming and other Mississippi and
Missouri Valley States.
BY means of specially designed
spore traps. attached to or carried in
the airplanes, the presence of spores
could be detected, and by means of
time exposures it could be ascertained
whether or not these spores existed i'm
quantities and also in what areas. Ad-
ditional experiments were made up to
and including 1925. Then in 1926 81
experimental flights were made for the
purpose Of determining the presence
of insects in the air. These flights
established with certainty the fact
that spores Of certain germ rusts were
plentiful at attitudes up to IL 900 feet
and in less quantities up to 10000
feet.
Thus, through the use of the air.
plane 1t was esta ablished that one Of
the greatest enemies of the wheat
farmers could be spread for hundreds,
il not thousands of miles by the two
agencies of wind and rain. And, in
addition, a great stride was made
toward the determination of these
pests; for this knowledge gained en-.
ables those interested to strike at the
source of these fungicidal pests, which
are the greatest enemies of Northern
wheat fields.
Success at busting.
But, while this was a great step
toward eliminating fungicidal pests,
another advance was taken in 1921
by the Ohio Agricultural Experiment
Station toward killing off insect pests
With the cooperation of the United
States Air Service this experiment sta
tion, by using an airplane, busted
with lead arsenate a catalpa grove to
protect the grove against a leaf de-
stroying insect known as the catalpa
sphinx. a caterpillar.
The success of this experiment led
to the further use Of the airplane