Other Aerial Applications
The first known aerial application of agricultural materials was by John Chaytor, who in 1906 spread seed over a swamped valley floor in Wairoa, New Zealand, using a hot air balloon with mobile tethers.
The first known use of a heavier-than-air machine in aerial topdressing occurred on 3 August 1921 when as the result of advocacy by Dr Coad, a USAAC Curtiss JN4 Jenny piloted by John A. Macready was used to spread lead arsenate to kill catalpha sphinx caterpillars near Troy, Ohio in the United States. The first commercial operations were attempted in the US in 1924 and use of insecticide and fungicide for crop dusting slowly spread in the Americas and, to a lesser extent, other nations. Crop dusting poisons enjoyed a boom in the US and Europe after World War II until the environmental impact of widespread use became clear, particularly after the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Crop dusting was not adopted in New Zealand until after top dressing was well established.
Read more about this topic: Aerial Topdressing, Origins
Famous quotes containing the word aerial:
“A sociosphere of contact, control, persuasion and dissuasion, of exhibitions of inhibitions in massive or homeopathic doses...: this is obscenity. All structures turned inside out and exhibited, all operations rendered visible. In America this goes all the way from the bewildering network of aerial telephone and electric wires ... to the concrete multiplication of all the bodily functions in the home, the litany of ingredients on the tiniest can of food, the exhibition of income or IQ.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)