Evening star., 1942-05-13
Farm Bill
Continued From First Page.

quantities of other grains might be
sold for feeding livestock and poul-
try.
Permission to the Secretary Of
Agriculture to use some 44,000, 900
Of past appropriations to continue
the program of free hot lunches for
school children, which the House
had stricken out.
Senator Russell said he expected
the major Senate floor dispute to
revolve about activities OF the F..
S. A.
Experiments Planned.
The money for turf grass was
made available to the Bureau of
Plant Industry to carry on expert
ments in various parts of the coun-
try, in search of an improved type
of sod for this purpose.
AS the bill came from the House
the plant bureau had only $1,000
it could devote to this particular
research, and, while there was no
budget estimate for an increase,
members of the Senate committee
recognized the Importance of the
work as an aid to national defense.
Displaying interest in the airport
dust problem, the Senate commit
tee went into the subject in detail
at its hearings, made public today.
Among those who testified were:
P. v. Carbon, assistant admins
traitor of the Agricultural Research
Administration: DR.. John Monteith,
jr, secretary of the United States
Golf Association, who has collabo-
rated with the Bureau of Plant In
dustry, and Maj. Frank C. Quinlan,
N. S. A.
Vast Improvement.
Senator Russell observed at one
point in the hearings:
ANY one who is familiar with the
airports that have been constructed,
for instance, in Georgia, can see that
they would want to plant some grass
there that would keep the sand from
blowing into the motors"
Senator O'Mahoney, Democrat. of
Wyoming also joined in the discus
sion with this statement:
"I think it is quite obvious to
any person who has had any exper-
ience with air fields that it would
be a vast improvement to the eff
cheney of those fields if there was
a dust-suppressing device available
and if we had strong turf instead of
gravel or sand, it would be, no
doubt, of great advantage to the
airplanes."
Mai. Quinlan testified the ques-
ton was deemed of sufficient inter-
est that Assistant Secretary of War
for Air Lovett was taking it up.
Terrific Backwash.
The Air Corps realizes said
Mai. Quinlan, "and has realized the
Importance of this problem during
the last couple of years. and has
been devoting considerable time to
1t. Before the present emergency,
with the equipment we had then, the
problem was not acute. Today, with
the high-speed engines, there is
terrific backwash from the propeller
which moves the dirt or dust from
underneath the planes in great
clouds"
Mai. Quinlan agreed with Senator
Holman, Republican, of Oregon,
that skidding would be factor in
operating heavy planes on grass,
but not in the case of light ships.
I'VE are interested in getting good
turf surfaces at our schools. where
we have such light ships that we
can operate all over the field" the
major continued. I'VE would not
go there without big heavy planes
On the other hand, we would not
have to 60 on the runway with our
light planes. We could operate
them right off the turf"
Effect on Motors Cited.
Senator Nye, Republican, of North
Dakota placed in the record Of the
hearings an editorial from The Eve
ming Star of February "a, pointing
out that if saboteur was caught
pouring sand into airplane motors
he would be given the maximum
penalty. The editorial then cited
figures showing one instance in
which the damage caused by pre-
ventable dust clouds had reduced
the efficiency of the motors by go
per cent, necessitating repairs cost
ing s32o,000 to the planes at one
field A memorandum filed by Sen
ator Holman showed this was the
cost of one overhauling for 200
planes.
DR.. Monteith explained that, un-
like mixing concrete for which one
formula can be used generally, the
development of turf on airfields is
a question OF the type of soil and
varying conditions in different To-
calities. The purpose of the appro-