DUSTING COTTON FROM AIRPLANES. 35 
SUITABILITY OF TERRAIN. 
The contour and environment of cotton fields are particularly im- 
portant in low frying such as is required for cotton dusting, and will 
really determine the safety of the fields for airplane operation. At 
the same time, many obstructions to low flying can be eliminated with 
comparative ease. For instance, snags can usually be removed with 
little trouble. Again, if cotton were planted with a view to airplane 
dusting, the fields could easily be arranged in continuous tiers most 
convenient for the operation of the plane in long, straight flights. 
Of course there are many hilly sections of the Cotton Belt in which 
it would be too dangerous to use the planes as a regular operation, 
but throughout the flat country, such as the Mississippi Delta, or 
large areas in Texas, the conditions are ideal for flying. The ground 
is perfectly level and meadows provide landing fields on every prop- 
erty. Commercial use of the planes could never be developed if the 
flying should prove unduly dangerous to the pilots, but under the 
conditions prevailing in these districts low flying is not seriously 
dangerous. Forced landings can be made at any point, and even 
though the motor should be cut off while flying over the fields, if 
sufficient speed were maintained to bring the plane to a level, it could 
be landed in the corn or cotton with very little danger to the pilot, 
although of course some damage would be done to the plane. 
Yet the conditions around Tallulah are not abnormally favorable 
for airplane dusting. The Parish of Madison, in which Tallulah is 
located, is probably from 15 to 20 per cent cleared. Swamp lakes 
occur throughout the Parish. These have heavily timbered margins, 
the woods usually extending for some distance around them, since 
it is impossible to drain the land for cultivation anywhere near them. 
The cultivated fields therefore, follow the contour of the land rather 
than being consolidated in cleared areas. 
As such conditions are not the most favorable for airplane opera- 
tion, a few tests under more favorable flying conditions were made 
at Scott, Miss., where the planes were kept for two days, and used in 
special tests of straightaway flights. Scott is in Bolivar County, 
which is one of the most important cotton-producing counties in the 
United States. The county has been rather thoroughly drained by 
large drainage projects and this has rendered possible an extreme 
consolidation of cleared area. A deliberate effort has been made to 
clear up the small timbered areas and throw the open fields together 
as a means of reducing weevil damage. 
The newly cleared fields about Scott presented a particularly 
interesting condition. Following the drainage, which at many 
points was provided only a few years ago, large areas on a few plan- 
tations have been very recentl/ cleared and put into cultivation. 
Timber is so heavy in this territory that it is not financially prac- 
ticable to clear the stumps from the field and they must be left to 
rot out. Many of the plantations in this district have large areas 
of such so-called "new ground," where cotton is planted in a very 
heavy stand of stumps from 4 to 5 feet high. The majority of the 
plantations are now poisoning for weevil control by means of the 
ordinary ground dusting machines, and these stumpy fields presenl 
a very serious obstacle. In the first place the stumps provide hiber- 
nation quarters for the weevil, and thus the fields receive an unusu- 
