VARIED CLAIMS ON USE OF PLANES FOR TOP-DRESSING

Grey River Argus, 19 October 1948, Page 8

VARIED CLAIMS ON USE OF PLANES FOR TOP-DRESSING

Although a claim was made in a Press Association message from Hamilton that. “On Tuesday the lirst aerial topdressing trial in New Zealand was conducted on the property of the late Mr J. B. Vowles, of Te Mata, three tons of hillside superphosphate being distributed over an area of 13 acres of typical hill country,” the fields instructor for the Department of Agriculture at Gore, Mr W. Faithful, pointed out that the account of this method of topdressing appeared in the Journal of Agriculture of September, 1946. The experiment, according to the article, was carried out on an area of about 1100 acres of peat land near Waitakakaruru, on the Hauraki plains during the week beginning July 15, of that year. AERIAL SEED SOWING On Tuesday an interesting experiment in aerial seed sowing was carried out by a farmer and a former wartime bomber pilot and flying instructor on his property near Pukerau, Southland. The operation was conducted with a Tiger Moth ’plane. A seed mixture of cocksfoot, dogstail and white clover was stacked in the front of the cockpit in 10 small bags, the flow being regulated by another crew member. For the most part, the area flown over was unploughable sweet tusspek land, with extensive rock outcrops, on top of a ridge. The rate of sowing was about 201 b to the acre. Although the seed came from a nozzle, in a thick flow, it fanned out when caught in a slip-stream to cover an area about a chain wide. The operation was completed in about 20 minutes. If it had been carried out by hand work it would have occupied several days.