UNITED STATES
LOW & SLOW
Mabry I. Anderson An Insider’s History of Agricultural Aviation
The Southern and Midwestern Spread Chapter Four continued…
“Dusty” Huggins flies on 2,4-D work in the Red River Valley of the Dakotas prior to World War II. Huggins did nearly all of the early 2,4-D experimental work in the area.
B 8 | agairupdate.com
Despite the fact that Charles “Slim” Lindbergh popularized flying m the Midwest, particularly around Lincoln, Nebraska, and in his home state of Minnesota in the 1920s, agricultural flying or crop dusting was a bit late arriving there. This is somewhat peculiar, because the magnificent, far-flung fields of the great belt of superb farm land between Illinois and Montana were and are a crop duster’s dream. But the time for agricultural aviation had not arrived. Commercial chemical firms and government experimental agencies simply hadn’t come up with materials suitable for the control of most of the Midwestern insects or weeds that plagued farmers in that region. As a result, agricultural flying was generally confined to the South, Southwest, California. This is not to say that agricultural flying was
not done at all. Sporadic flights were made by barnstorming dusters at scattered locations and, as early as 1929, at least one attempt at aerial seeding was made in Nebraska. Harold Wickersham, who still resides in Seward, Nebraska, and pilot friend Don Wright, also of Seward, made a successful attempt at sowing rape seed on a com field in July 1929. According to Wickersham, “July of 1929 was very hot and dry, typical of the summers of that era. I had been out of high school four years and remained home to help with the farming. We lived one mile north of Seward on what was then called the ‘Wake Section.’ My uncle and cousin farmed the north half and we farmed the south. Most of the work was done with horses and a few hired men. “Among the many friends who I went to school with was Don Wright. Don was an exception. ➤
