Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 215, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1919 — AN EYE in the AIR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AN EYE in the AIR

by ROBERT M. MOULTON

Aircraft \ to Search Out Forest Fires and Outlaw Cotton ~ Fields

EPORTS from Washington seem to indicate that th* air service is going to pieces rapidly from various causes and that September will practically see the last of It. This Is especially to be regretted in view 'of the recent numerous, extensive and disastrous forest fires In the Northwest. The lesson of these fires Is that the na-

tlonal forests and national parks must be patrolled by airplanes and protected by wireless telephone: Time Is a vital factor In fighting forest fires. They must bedetected -instantly —and combated promptly. Once a forest fire gains sufficient headway the flames convert each live pine Into a gas retort and the flaming gas, carried by the wind, jumps far ahead of the fire line, to start new fires. Also, a forest fire will run up a mountain slope with tremendous speed, creating its own draft as It goes.

Airplane service would Instantly detect a forest fire. It would reach the spot promptly, with smothering gas, firefighters, tools, provisions and materials. If the national forests and national parks are worth creating and administering, they are worth preserving. The ordinary forest fire is a calamity. The big one is a catastrophe. In a twinkling the growth of generations Is gone. Where a forest stood there is desolation which will last for many a year. The losses in money this season, saying nothing of the menace to human life, would pay for an extensive air service equipment. That there Is a distinct and Important place for aircraft In fire protection of timberlands has been regarded by the forestry officials for some time as beyond doubt. It was with this Idea in mind that arrangements were made to have army airplanes and captive balloons cover portions of the national forests of California, Arizona, New Mexico and other state? this summer. The patrolling was started early in June and has so quickly proved its worth, that It was proposed to extend the service to other points in the East, Including one near the White mountains in New Hampshire. No difficulty is experienced by the airmen in detecting fires In heavy timber from elevations of 6,000 to 10,000 feet. At present the forest service relies for the detection of fires partly on patrol. usually by men on horses, motor cycles, or railroad speeders, and partly on watchers stationed on lookout points. Aircraft have many poffits of obvious over this method. Lookouts in every broken country,

cut up by deep canons or where mountain ridges obstruct the view, or in a flat country that affords no good points of vantage, are often unable to pick up fires quickly by the rising smoke, or to locate them accurately. For precise location the system in use depends on triangulation through reports telephoned from separate observation points. Airplanes, however, can Use wireless, or even the new wireless telephone, and they can locate fires by coordinates in the same way that gunfire in war is directed to a particular spot. —Experiments made In bombing fires to put them out show the possibilities in thls direction. Bombs charged with suitable chemicals for extingiushlng fires have been used with good results. At present the only observation balloon used in connection with forest fire patrolling is the one maintained at the Arcadia field, near Los Angeles. This balloon is sent aloft to a height of about 3,000 feet and remains there from 7 a. m. until 6 p. m. In case of fire a report from the balloon observer is telephoned to the army balloon school and transmitted to the forest service at Los Angeles. Another plan to be tested later in the summer is transporting fire fighters by dirigibles from which ladders can be lowered to the ground.

Outlaw Cotton Fields. The airplane to spy out hidden cotton fields has proved successful. It Is the result of an experiment carried out by the federal horticultural board of the department of agriculture. In southern Texas, where the devastating pink bollworm of cotton has been trying to invade the United States from Mexico, there are cotton-free zones, declared by law as barriers against the progress of the-worm. But a few misguided farmers feel that their rights have been infringed and have developed a tendency to become cutlaw cotton planters. Much of the country Is heavily timbered, roads are neither plentiful nor good In many places, and it has been possible for an outlaw planter to tuck away a few pcres of cotton in some nook of the -woods beyond probability of discovery by ordinary means, though the department of agriculture has been making diligent efforts to spot every stalk of cotton in the quarantined areas. Last year when workers of the federal horticultural board were on the ground, they tried out the alrplanp for scouting work. In this way Inspector Hensley of the board discovered seven outlaw cotton fields In the heavily wooded country along the Trinity river and around Galveston bay which had escaped discovery. —January of thlsyeafThe work of locating cotton fields in the observation

zone by aerial patrol was officially inaugurated and has been In regular process ever since. Two flights were made later in January for the purpose of obtaining a panoramic view of the territory bordering the quarantine lines, to note the character and extent of any forests or wooded areas which might act as a natural barrier to the spread of the pink bollworm by flight of the moth, as well as to secure some idea of the value of aerial observations in connection with entomological scouting and mapping. • These flights were made at an altitude'Of from 1,500. to 2,000 feet. At this elevation on a clear day_jL_dife tinet vision could be had of the country over a range of 30 miles, and cultivated fields, buildings, shell roads, railway lines, creeks, and the character of wooded areas, whether pine or deciduous, could be easily distinguished. At the normal speed of the airplane—7s miles- an hour—the ground moves so. slowly that the observer has time to get a complete picture of the area and easily to distinguish cotton from corn fields. Inspector Hensley is enthusiastic In the belief that the airplane will tremendously facilitate all such scouting and. reconnaissance work, including mapping. Similar use can be made of it in other agricultural and forestry surveys, which are analogous to the mapping and survey 4ise made of it for war purposes. The tests made last year, followed by the more important and systematic utilization of this new means of survey and inspection carried out this year, marks probably the first use of the airplane In a practical way in agriculture, and may be the starting of an important use of this new means of transportation and observation for scouting and inspection purposes in other fields of research or control work.