The Topdressers 1990 By Janic Geelen and Ray Deerness.

Published By NZ Aviation Press Waiuku. First Edition 1990. VERY SCARCE.

Very good hardback with laminated boards. No inscriptions, binding firm. Some bumping to spine ends, minor marks and light creasing to some pages.

Colour, and black and white plates, illustrations.

Includes details of Agricultural Pilots 1941-1990, frontispiece map, unpaginated, 118 Pages.

A History of Topdressing in New Zealand. Supermen, Topdressers, Dung Dusters. A tiny industry. Maybe 500 strong. Engineers, loader-drivers, pilots. A dedicated, loyal, and precision team. Day after day the pilots faced noise, dust and danger. A take-off and landing every three minutes. Hills, valleys and plains all were fertilised from the air for out of the blue grew the greenest grass. Few farmers were in a position to experiment with aircraft on their farms. It was Doug Campbell of the Soil Conservation & Rivers Control Council who perceived aerial topdressing as a way to solve soil erosion in hill country. He persuaded the Government to use the RNZAF to try it. The first experiments in 1948 were a great success. Farmers expected the Air Force would soon do their work. Instead the task was taken up by small operators who converted old trucks to serve as loaders for their flimsy Tiger Moth biplanes. This group of ex-wartime pilots, in love with flying, and often with farming backgrounds, took up the challenge. Every part of New Zealand was to have its own pioneer'.

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