I had a former Farm Advisor come by this morning and drop off this Fumigun, an important piece of fumigation history.  He used it first to apply chloropicrin in the Pajaro Valley in 1955, and in the years following continued to use it, working with UC greats Art Greathead, Al Paulus and Steve Wilhelm.

The Fumigun is simple to operate.  Using a funnel, the chamber of the applicator is filled with liquid chloropicrin,  which unlike methyl bromide has a low vapor pressure stays in liquid form at 1 atm.  Inserting the Fumigun into the soil up to the plate at the bottom, the chloropicrin is then ejected at measured aliquots by pushing the handle down until it stops, forcing the chloropicrin out of the chamber, through the small pore at the end of the pointed rod and into the soil.  The resulting hole in the ground was tamped close with the applicator's shoe to contain the fumigant.

I sure would love to put this thing through its paces again and relive an important piece of Pajaro Valley history, but I don't think current regulations would allow it anymore.