The Early Days Down South — Chapter

The "Puffer"

Almost as soon as this airplane went into action, it was nicknamed the "Puffer," a play on the words "Huff'n puff and I'll blow your house down." Huff-Daland's logo became famous-a painting of a giant blowing out a great cloud of dust on the fields below!

Actual flying operations began in early 1924, most of them centered around the unlikely cotton country near Macon, Georgia. Eighteen aircraft were available. The plan was to scatter them throughout the cotton growing South, with two planes in each of nine locations. General headquarters were in Macon at a very modem (for that day) flying field and hangar built by the local Chamber of Commerce five miles south of town. The field was usable four ways, with one runway 1,800 feet long. On at least one occasion, the facility was used by the First Army Pursuit Group in a Canada to Florida flight in 1925.

The year 1924 was a rather poor one for this fledgling firm, due in great part to the relatively small fields in the Georgia cotton growing region and the lack of publicity in that area. As a result, the firm moved its operations base from Macon to Monroe, Louisiana in early 1925. Dr. Bert Coad at Delta Laboratory apparently played a leading role in Huff-Daland's move, since he was still vitally interested in dusting by air and wanted the company readily available for growers in the Louisiana-Mississippi Delta.

Although plans in 1924 were not entirely satisfactory, the year was important because it firmly established commercial crop dusting as a viable enterprise. Work was done all over the South and one well-documented boll weevil control program was initiated on the Robertshaw Plantation near Heathman, Mississippi, that was undoubtedly one of the first purely commercial ventures. At this plantation, Frank Robertshaw had 3,500 acres of cotton, of which 1,800 acres were planted very late and subject to destruction by boll weevil. A contract was made with Huff-Daland to protect this cotton by application of calcium arsenate at a cost of 35 cents per acre.

One continued…

The boll weevil infestation was slow to develop, but in late September it became significant enough that 400 acres were dusted twice. The first application controlled an infestation of leaf worms as a side benefit.

Another dusting operation was scheduled for the morning of October 2, 1924 and a large crowd was on hand to watch. Oddly enough, an unusually early killing frost occurred that night and when the crews arrived to begin the dusting flights, the cotton was turning black from the frost! Nevertheless, the dusting was done, primarily for the benefit of the many spectators.

Proving Practicality

Among the spectators that day were BJ. Young and E.C. Ewing, insect control specialists for the huge Delta and Pine Land Company at Scott, Mississippi. They had witnessed demonstration flights by the Delta Laboratory crews in 1922 and this further demonstration fully convinced them of the practicality of the method. ➤

As a result, Delta and Pine Land Company became one of the first enthusiastic users of agricultural aircraft. Young became an unpaid promoter of airplane crop dusting and was later honored with a full membership in the prestigious American Association of Economic Entomologists for his outstanding success in the control of insects with the airplane.

Better times were around the comer for Huff-Daland and in 1925 at least 18 aircraft were working throughout the South. Some 60,000 acres of cotton were under contract, with each base servicing the acreage in the surrounding area. Aircraft, ground crews, and pilots remained at these sites during the entire growing season, since at least five or six applications were usually necessary. The firm's personnel took up temporary residence in nearby towns and were usually well accepted and integrated into the local scene. Airplanes and pilots were still a novelty and created a tremendous amount of interest among the local people.

The aircraft dusting service was sold to farmers on contract, at $7.00 per acre for five applications. The price included the cost of the calcium arsenate that was applied. This material was usually applied at a rate of 10 to 12 pounds per acre. Additional dustings, if needed, were priced out at this same pro-rated cost.

An interesting sidelight of this 1925 operation was that Aetna Insurance Company inaugurated a cotton insect damage insurance policy for growers.The policy offered protection from loss by insects, provided a grower had contracted for the Huff-Daland Dusters airplane control program! Evidence indicates that this was the first insect damage crop insurance policy ever offered to the farming community.

In addition to cotton dusting, Huff-Daland made the first attempts at controlling insects and disease on other crops, particularly peach orchards. Georgia was noted for its peaches and in 1925 thousands of trees were dusted for a variety of pests that could be controlled with the insecticides then available.

According to an article by Robert William Riis in Janes All The Worlds Aircraft 1925, this work was highly successful. Riis says in the article, "Airplanes have been actively engaged in dusting some millions of peach trees that make Georgia beautiful this spring. This work has been extraordinarily satisfactory to the peach growers. It is a noteworthy fact that airplanes can dust peaches and pecans and pine forests and cotton, and, in fact, any crop that has a disease and a remedy for that disease. It is also noteworthy, however, that the work is not done by airships; nor can it be very successfully done in country like New England, where the hills are too abrupt and the acreage too small to suit the high speed of an airplane in action!" ➤ a u l i c a l l y - o p e r a t e d h o p p e r d o o r a n d p r o d u c t l e v e l e r b o t h c o n t r o l l e d b y t h e p i l o t e l i m i n a t e s t h e n e e d f o r a n o nw i n g l o a d e r S t a i n l e s s S t e e l A u g e r w i t h s e a l e d b e a r i n g s P r o v e n a f t e r m o r e t h a n 1 5 y e a r s a n d h u n d r e d s o f i n s t a l l a t i o n s C o n t a c t u s t o d a y a n d s c h e d u l e y o u r L o a d H a w g i n s t a l l a t i o n

Another application of aircraft to dispensing materials was early insect control for public health purposes. Huff-Daland did some such work in 1925, following a formula developed at Delta Laboratory in Tallullah in 1923 and 1924. Doctors Bradley and King, working with the U.S. Public Health Service, made extensive tests on mosquito control in swampy areas and lakes around Mount, Louisiana. Aircraft from Delta Laboratory applied Paris green at a rate of about one-half pound per acre to areas infested with the anopheline mosquito and discovered that it controlled the larvae effectively.

An important finding was that the amount of poison required for control varied with the type of terrain being treated. Open rice fields and wide open swamps required smaller amounts of chemicals than lakes and swamps that were protected by trees and brush, which the chemical had to penetrate before it could contact the water and be effective. To do its job, Paris green dust had to float on the water and be consumed by the mosquito larvae. Only the larvae of the Anopheles quadrimacuatus fed at the water's surface, making it the only controllable mosquito. These findings were valuable from a learning perspective. For example, it was discovered that the proper mixture of Paris green with inert ingredients was of utmost importance. Paris green compounds remained the principal mosquito larvicide used by air until the introduction of DDT much later, during World War II.