36 BULLETIN 1204, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
ally heavy infestation in the early spring, requiring more poisoning 
than the older field- farther out in the open. On the other hand, if 
weevil control can be effected, these fields are the most profitable 
for cotton because of their greater fertility, and consequent higher 
potential yield. In using ground dusting machine- it is a serious 
problem to take care of any considerable acreage of this sort, be- 
cause the larger machines can not be operated under such conditions, 
owing especially to the necessity of uight poisoning, and they would 
he broken up by striking the stumps. 
These -tumps, of course, presented not the slighest obstacle for 
the airplane, except to provide an element of danger if forced land-. 
ings should be necessary, and with the planes it was possible to pro- 
duce a much more thorough application than has ever been accom- 
plished iu ground work. The plane, operating above the stumps, 
is not required to dodge them, and consequently can thoroughly dusl 
every cotton plant. 
The possibilities of straightaway flying and the acreage capacity 
of a plane were found to be much greater in the territory around 
Scott than Tallulah. In the large cleared areas in continuous cot- 
ton it was found that strips from 1 to 6 or 8 miles long could be 
treated in a straightaway flight, reducing the loss of time in turning 
which is unavoidable in working small individual iields. 
Only a few records were obtained under such conditions, but cer- 
tainly the plane capacity can be increased beyond that indicated for 
the Tallulah neighborhood, and it seems quite possible, judging from 
the present fragmentary figures, that with a hopper designed for the 
maximum carrying capacity of the plane, a single plane can treat 
as much as from 700 to 1.000 acres in an hour. With such capacity, 
of course, the area which could be allotted to a plane for each sea- 
son's work could be greatly increased. Much more definite data must 
be obtained, however, before any really accurate figures can be pro- 
vided on the subject. 
CONTROL OF DUST SPREAD. 
At the beginning it was considered possible that the use of the 
plane might result in indiscriminate poisoning of every object on 
the property, including the cabins and everything in them, but as 
the work progressed it became apparent that no more promiscuous 
dusting of surroundings was done with the planes than with ground 
machines as ordinarily operated. It is true that cabins frequently 
were subjected to a cloud of dust, but this is equally true in the case 
of ground machines, and the latter have been used for several years 
without any apparent damage or danger. The poison, except where 
it is being delivered directly on the cotton plant, is so thinly dis- 
tributed that the portion drifting to any other point does not settle 
in injurious (plant hies. 
Many have feared danger from poisoning cotton Iields adjoining 
meadows or corn, the produce from which is to be fed to stock. 
However, poisoning under such conditions has been done innumerable 
times for a number of years with ground machines, which permit 
fully as much drift of poison as the planes, and not tin 1 slightest 
evidence of danger has ever been noted. Considered from this view- 
point there is no apparent reason why airplane dusting should be any 
more dangerous than the ordinary operation. 
