crop dusting with mules

[Delta Dirt]

Here is a couple of photos of early days crop dusting here in the Mississippi Delta with mules---------most likely poisioning for boll weevil in these photos. I would think these photos are dated late 1920s-----early 1930's)

(I snapped this picture of a picture in the River Boat Museum in Greenville, Mississippi)

(dust was tough on man, mule and later pilots)---------spray replaced dust in the early to mid 1950's here in the Delta.


Delta Dirt
Avon, Ms 38723

[MCanady]

I bet the pecticide in the dust was DDT.

[John W]

You are right, that is cotton. Daddy and his people used arsenic. DDT did not come until after WWII. Daddy said the old farmers tried everything to kill or prevent the boll weevil. He says the old farmers even would try to use kerosene soaked rags tied to the plow stocks that would drag along and wipe the ground and later the plants. So much for the good old days.

JW

[Kevin O. Pulver]

When I saw the title, "Crop dusting with Mules", I had to laugh as I envisioned some sort of flying Santa Claus 8 horse hitch!
Kevin

[OTTO-Sawyer]

Originally Posted by Kevin O. Pulver

When I saw the title, "Crop dusting with Mules", I had to laugh as I envisioned some sort of flying Santa Claus 8 horse hitch!
Kevin

Twisted Minds Think Alike

My first thought when I read it was dropping mules or mule parts from a crop dusting plane or helicopter kind of like when Les Nessman was reporting on WKRP about the Live Turkeys being dropped from a helicopter over a shopping mall at Thanksgiving time. "Oh The Humanity !"

I don't remember if it was Herb or the Boss that had the line "As God is my Witness, I thought Turkeys could fly"

Thanks for posting the pictures, and for the story that went with them.

[JBdairy]

Originally Posted by John W

Daddy and his people used arsenic. DDT did not come until after WWII.
JW

John is right. most of the dusts were lead arsenate. They also would mix sulpher in with it too. It all depended on what they were spraying for at the time.

The duster in the lower picture looks like it was one made by Niagara Sprayer in Middleport, NY. I have a picture of one being tested on their factory site in 1915 that I have posted below.

[Delta Dirt]

Niagra is an old and long recoginized name in the spraying and dusting circles here in the Delta--------the two pictured sure look similar---thanks for posting your photo JB.

Here is a later model--------ground driven/walk behind unit, but still mule powered. (don't know the brand)-------but it still had some caked up dust in the hopper.

This unit is a collectors item on a used equipment dealers lot at Isola, Mississippi.

Delta Dirt
Avon, Ms 38723

[speleausmining]

The title of this thread is great! didnt know what to expect but I sure knew it would be interesting.

"I bet the pecticide in the dust was DDT. " Years ago while scrounging around an old mine site I found one of the old open cuts had been used by a farmer as a dump in the 1920's-1950's amoung other things lying around I noticed an old tin with a fair amout of paint on it so I pulled it out and turned it over. It was yellow with big black text DDT! The tin was still about half full of powder. Nasty nasty stuff.

[heeler]

I can't believe the guy riding the mule and dumping it in as he went. My mule would find that less than acceptable. I imagine they used mules because they were the only things tough enough to handle that stuff.

[G Willikers]

You wonder how all those guys fared that did that kind of work without any protection at all!??!
Back in the 70s, we had land next to a large apple orchard operation. They brought in workers from the Carribean and manys the days those guys were on open tractors fogging the living hell out of the trees with little or no protection. You could hardly see the guy on the tractor for the fog!
Not sure what chemicals they were using but it would make you feel quite queazy working in the next field, I know that! I often wonder about those guys and what kind of health they might have today, if they are still with us? They also took the water right out of the ponds and mixed the stuff all by hand, again with no masks, etc.. The pails were left scattered around or in the ponds!

[casertractor]

i wonder if they had to have a sparyers licence back then?.John

[OTTO-Sawyer]

Originally Posted by G Willikers

You wonder how all those guys fared that did that kind of work without any protection at all!??!

Probably just as well (or just as badly) as all the kids that used to run along behind the mosquito sprayers playing in the fog.

They banned DDT yet there are foreign countries that would love to be able to use it as it is the best insecticide out there, but they aren't allowed to so their kids die of Malaria instead.

[Kevin O. Pulver]

In 91, I had to take a FIFRA class. Federal Insecticide Fungicide,and Rodenticide Act. The farmer I worked for had to take it, and I did to in order to use chemicals. In those days, Atrazine came in 2 1/2 gallon jugs, and the protocol was that you had to triple rinse the empty jugs as you were mixing in the large tractor mounted spray tanks. Talk about "straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel"! I told them that they are so worried about a few drops in the jug winding up in a landfill, but we just sprayed the ENTIRE 2 1/2 gallons on the ground, where rain and irrigation will run it off the field and into the creek.
I guess it gave some bureaucrat a job though.
Kevin