Aeronautics: Plane v. Frost

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On a clear windless night last week when the temperature hovered near freezing, an airplane skimmed back & forth, back & forth across a lowland field in eastern Wisconsin. From midnight until 5 a. m. the plane continued its lonely patrol at loo ft. altitude, barely missing the tamarack trees bordering the field. At dawn it flew away, to return another chill, cloudless night.

The field was the 400-acre potato patch of Farmer John Erickson of Waupaca, Wis. The plane was a second-hand crate owned and flown by George Parker, 22-year-old student at Northwestern University. Pilot Parker's job was to stir up the cold air which settles in the lowland, thus save the potatoes from frost. If he brings Farmer Erickson's crop through to harvest unblighted. Pilot Parker will collect $400, enough to send him back to college this autumn. If frost strikes, Parker gets nothing.