Eco Snow Melter
Believe it or not, spring is just around the corner...at least according to the calendar.
For the farmers in Furano, the calendar doesn't lie, and must be followed. Consequently, even though there are 2 meters of densely settled snow covering the fields, planting must begin by certain dates. What to do? Make the snow go away! It's quite uneconomical to try and remove acres and acres of snow. What better way to do it than to use some nice organic material and let the sun do it's work.
Enter the charcoal spreader. Somewhere in the mists of time, somebody observed that "Boy, the snow sure does melt fast where we dump the stove ashes." Voila! Modern Hokkaido farmers order a truck full of charcoal dust, which they then evenly spread across their fields. The pure black carbon soaks up the sun's rays and the heat melts the snow amazingly fast when compared to the adjacent non-charcoaled areas. All this gives the farmers that important few extra weeks to prep their fields and get the crops planted on time. Simple, brilliant, and super eco-friendly. A little carbon added to the soil certainly can't hurt things!
See you in Furano.