Topdressing - where did it start?

I have heard a bit about the name John (?) Brazier being tied to topdressing in Canterbury, and I have a feeling that the Airwork company might be connected with that name too - does anyone know anything else about him?

John & Bill Brazier ran Airwork (the original company) out of Harewood.
Their company carried out the first commercial topdressing operation in NZ using Tiger Moth ZK-ASO (no, I'm not joking) 27th May 1949.

Thanks Peter, now that you mention that I seem to recall my Dad talking about that event. I think they were topdressing a property near Kaituna (?) on Banks Peninsula.

Then they are wrong.

They're probably referring to the RNZAF trials, which were not commercial.

History summary, excerpts from Quickseek:

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 occurred on 3 August 1921 when as the result of advocacy by Dr Coad, a USAAC Curtiss JN4 Jenny piloted by John 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 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 publishing of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Crop dusting was not adopted in New Zealand until after top dressing was well established.

Early Suggestions

Initial interest in New Zealand concentrated on seed sowing, however much of New Zealand's central North Island farm land, given to returned servicemen after World War I, had proven deficient in trace minerals such as cobalt, copper and selenium, forcing difficult topdressing by hand in rough country, or abandoning the land for forestry and the possibility of using aircraft soon occurred.

Spreading Superphosphate by agricultural aircraft was independently suggested by two New Zealanders, John Lambert of Hunterville and Len Daniell of Wairere in 1926. There was some publicity when in 1936 Hawkes Bay farmer Harold McHardy used a de Havilland Gypsy Moth to sow clover seed on his own land. This lead the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council to decide to fund aerial sowing and topdressing trials to prevent erosion in 1937, but little progress was made, despite strong advocacy by Doug Campbell.

At that time it was illegal to drop anything from an aircraft, which dissuaded several advocates who felt a law change was needed before experiments could begin. Eventually Esmond Gibson would get that law change, but long before that news of early experiments was spread by an article was a published by a government pilot for the Ministry of Works who simply took the risk of publishing an article showing he broke the law.

Alan Pritchard

Alan Pritchard pilot for the New Zealand Public Works Department, recalls the idea of spreading seed occurred to him as he was flying E Madden of the Ministry of Works in a Moth, sharing grapes and throwing the seeds out of the open cockpits. A few months later, he was prevented from conducting an aerial survey in Northland when the Ministry's Miles Whitney Straight ZK AFH was grounded by bad weather. A supervisor J L Harrison, complained Pritchard was holding back men needed to sow lupin seed. Pritchard suggested that the sowing the seed by air. Burying the hatchet, Harrison and Pritchard spent that evening experimenting with methods of dispersal, before settling on sewing a sack onto a piece of down pipe. The following morning, 8 March, Pritchard flew over Ninety Mile Beach while Harrison, on his signal, held the down pipe out a window and emptied the sack. They then landed and examined the spread of the seeds. It was found a distribution of 1 seed per square foot was obtained from a height of 100 - 150 feet. On Monday 10 March, they sowed 375 acres, using 2lb/acre (instead of the 5lb/acre used when sowing by hand). The pair returned to examine the site at 2 weeks, 1 month and 2 years, at all points the aerially sown land was indistinguishable from that sown by hand. After the outbreak of World War II, he had the good fortune to retain the use of ZK AFH, when most often aircraft were impressed for war time service.

Pritchard wrote up the experiment in the NZ Journal of Agriculture (vol 70 p117-120). This came to the attention of the Minister Bob Semple, who Pritchard occasionally flew as a VIP. Semple asked how Pritchard had obtained permission. Pritchard admitted he hadn't, and had "cribbed' back the time in the ZK AFH's logbooks by extending the time of other flights. Semple encouraged Pritchard to continue, adding "Don't let anyone catch you, and if they do, send them to me". Pritchard conducted various trials between 1939 and 1943, at some point during which he added fertiliser to the seeds.

As a result in 1945 the Department of Agriculture estimated aerial topdressing would cost about £4 per ton of fertiliser (on a basis of 2 cwt per acre), which was economic, (in actual fact, this price turned out to be a significant overestimate). Pritchard now found an ally, who could officially sanction further trials.

Doug Campbell

Doug Campbell had been suggesting the spread of both seed and fertiliser for erosion control and adding trace minerals since the 1930s. Immediately after the war, he obtained permission to build a sheet metal hopper for ZK AFH to test the spread of blue stone crystals. In 1946 the first pure topdressing flight was conducted. Mixtures of bluestone crystals, sulphate of ammonia, slaked lime and carbon black were used. The lack of a lid for the hopper initially resulted in irritating dust spreading through the aircraft in turbulence, in cold wet conditions it was necessary to heat the hopper to prevent the fertiliser coagulating, while in dry conditions the powder tended to disperse in the wind before reaching the ground. Never the less in July Campbell arranged for ZK AFH to topdress 1,100 acres of a copper deficient farm. In August 1947 trials with cobalt sulphate in liquid form were conducted on the farm of KM Hickson near Taumaranui, with a horseback mounted radio used to convey results to the pilot. It was soon suggested that cobaltised superphosphate would be easier to spread although it was felt a specialised aircraft would be needed to do this.

Campbell published his research in the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology Volume X 1948 as “Some observations on Top dressing in New Zealand”.

Convinced by the trials, Campbell formed the co-ordinating and advisory committee on Aerial Topdressing with representatives from the Ministry of Public Works, Department of Agriculture, Department of Air, DSIR and Soil Conservation council. At the committee's first meeting on 27 November 1947 it resolved to ask the RNZAF for assistance.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force trials

Between the second world war and the cold war, the RNZAF was a large and competent organisation without a lot of work to do. It responded enthusiastically to Campbell's suggestion, initially proposing to use Tiger Moth and DC-3 aircraft, but concerns about corrosion lead them to use "expendable" war surplus Grumman Avengers.

Experiments were resumed on 5 September 1948 using the Witney Straight and three Grumman Avengers; the Royal New Zealand Air Force put superphosphate in a converted long range fuel tank in Avenger NZ2504 and dropped it over the concrete runway at Ohakea. (NZ2504 is now preserved in the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum).

The superphosphate was too powdery but a more granular form was found before final trials measuring distribution pattern of spread by air on September 16. The results were considered very promising. Trials proceeded to hill country at Te Mata near Raglan, and were extended to three other sites.

For 1949 a Research and Development flight was formed under Stan Quill equipped with the three Avengers and a DC3, while instructions were sent to England to modify 2 Miles Aerovans on the production line to carry 1 ton hoppers. A ground convoy of station wagon, car, one-ton truck, jeep, fuel tanker and radio van supported them. The 1948 fuel tank was replaced by a hopper with sides angled at 60 degrees and a vibrating rod to loosen the superphosphate. Large scale topdressing started on 14 March 1949 spreading clover-super mix. The "Topdress III" trials culminated on 21 May 1949, with a demonstration drop on eleven different properties close to Masterton in front of large numbers of farmers and press. These trials were calculated to have spread 2.5 cwt/acre at an all up cost of 15/- despite the use of inappropriately over powered combat aircraft. Further public displays were given to cabinet ministers on 30 August at Johnsonville, on 9 September at Ohakea and at a September 17 Airforce day air show. As these trials were a resounding success, in addition to the Aerovans, 12 RNZAF Bristol Freighters, then under construction were modified to take Superphosphate hoppers.

Following the successful RNZAF trials, in 1950 farmers groups lobbied the government to have the RNZAF provide subsidised topdressing with the Bristol freighters and even advocated using giant Handley Page Hastings. But by this time, government work was being overtaken by private enterprise as in ex-airforce pilots bought kiwi built De Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes cheaply, placed a hopper in the front seat and went into business flying from the paddocks of any farmer willing to pay. The RNZAF was waking up to the "Communist threat" and preferred to concentrate upon defence and the government reluctant to spend money or interfere with the increasing number of commercial operators.

Several factors lay behind the development of aerial topdressing in the apparent backwater of New Zealand. The New Zealand civil service gave its employees time and resources to pursue their ideas and publish research. Many farms included hill country, where it was impossible to spread fertiliser by truck. New Zealand farms tended to be large enough to make the costs worthwhile. High prices for lamb and wool in the early 1950s gave farmers the extra capital. World War II had left behind cheap war surplus Tiger Moths and highly trained ex air force pilots.

The majority of the 40,000 plus New Zealanders trained by the RNZAF were aircrew - because most were sent to Europe, and amalgamated into squadrons where the ground crew were from the United Kingdom. On returning to their rural homes, many bought cheap war surplus aircraft, particularly the Tiger Moth primary trainer, available for £100. These were used for weekend flying, but also dropping fencing, feed and people into remote areas, as well as occasionally aerial sowing and dropping rabbit poison.

By the end of 1949 there were 5 firms; Airwork had 5 Tigermoths, James aviation 3, Aircraft Services 3, Gisborne Aerial topdressing - which was to become Field air - had 1 and Southern Scenic Airtrips had converted an Auster. In addition Wally Harding was top dressing his own property with his private Tiger Moth. Within the following 5 years nearly 50 other companies - mostly one man operations - joined as competition, but when amalgamation occurred it was these pioneers who came to dominate the New Zealand industry.

Airwork(NZ)

Since 1947 Airwork (NZ) Limited had been operating Tiger Moths for rabbit killing by spreading poisoned carrots in Canterbury. In early May 1949 Charles Brazier used ZK ASO to spread lime. Airwork were aware Fred "Popeye" Lucas had conducted aerial seeding as well as rabbit poisoning and discussed the possibility of dropping seeds with fertiliser - as Pritchard had done - with Ces Worrell, a grain and seed merchant. He suggested spreading superphosphate alone would be more profitable, (a suggestion he may have wished he'd kept to himself - the following year, Worrell started a rival firm, Aerial Sowing). Acting on Worral's suggestion, Airwork arranged a public demonstration on Sir Heaton Rhodes's property at Tai Tapu, south of Christchurch on 27 May 1949. They advertised spreading superphosphate for £5 per ton, and several orders came from the audience.

Airwork pioneered the technique of landing on the farmer's own property, loading and turning the aircraft round in three or four minutes. To save time bulk loading from a vehicle was pioneered instead of emptying bags into the hopper. For the first drop a hurriedly converted Hupmobile but this soon broke down and replaced by a Landrover chassis was fitted with hydraulic arms. This investment was justified when Pyne Gould Guinness placed the first large contract at Christmas 1949. Airwork would go on to have a major role in the development of the Fletcher.

Arthur Bakers aircraft:
DH60G Moth ZK-ADT bought 1947 sold 1951 (currently restored to airworthy with Lee Middleton)
DH82A Tiger Moth ZK-APP bought 1947 sold 1950 (currently restored to airworthy with Ian Pirie)
Taylorcraft Auster 5 ZK-AVF bought 1950 sold 1951 (Cr near Homewood, Wairarapa, & DBF 3Jan60)
Miles Messenger 2A ZK-AWE bought 1951 sold 1957 (WFU & scrapped)
Miles Gemini ZK-ANT bought 1955 last flight 31Jan63, to MoTAT