. Cranberries; : the national cranberry magazine. Cranberries. Copters Uck 'dirtiest job' By CAROLYN CALDWELL Helicopters, long used for chemical application and more recently as a dry harvest tool, are now working their way into the dirtiest job on the bogs—cleaning ditches. SOME MASSACHUSETTS growers are employing the same copter methods to Uft ditch mud off their bogs that are used in the mountains for Ufting suppUes needed to build ski tramways and cabins. And they say it is not only cost efficient and cuts down drastically on bog traffic but also extends the ditch cleaning season at both
. Cranberries; : the national cranberry magazine. Cranberries. Copters Uck 'dirtiest job' By CAROLYN CALDWELL Helicopters, long used for chemical application and more recently as a dry harvest tool, are now working their way into the dirtiest job on the bogs—cleaning ditches. SOME MASSACHUSETTS growers are employing the same copter methods to Uft ditch mud off their bogs that are used in the mountains for Ufting suppUes needed to build ski tramways and cabins. And they say it is not only cost efficient and cuts down drastically on bog traffic but also extends the ditch cleaning season at both ends. All it involves is a square piece of V/a, inch chainlink fence woven with Vi, inch cables that are clamped and looped for attaching to the copter. Filled with mud, the fence forms a sort of basket as it is Ufted from bog to shore. Last year, growers William Chamberlain and Peter Beaton, using separate air services, experimented with lifting ditch mud, compared notes and have come up with workable results. Beaton, who uses Joe Brigham's Wiggins Airways out of New Hampshire, is charged by the hour, and says a 6 by 6 foot chainUnk section makes for quick work. Chamberlain, who employs Dan Qark's C & W Ag Air from Hanson, Mass., on a per hour Hft rate, prefers a larger, 8 by 8 section for quantity. He experimented with a 5 by 5 section, which was too light, and a 10 by 10 piece, which was too heavy. Chamber- lain also tried fishnet. "It was cheap and easier to make but slower hooking up," he said. The 8 square foot nets hold about 1,000 pounds or one buggy load. Chamberlain figures. "They average about one round trip in a minute," Chamberlain said. Once ashore, the groundman unhooks one end of the cable so the copter can dump the load by pulUng up on the other side of the net. The mud "tends to roll right ; Beaton and Chamberlain made their own nets and said that after 30 lifts each, the nets were holding up well. The chainhnk fence lif
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