A USEFUL INVENTION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2245, 5 October 1889, Page 2

A USEFUL INVENTION.

The farmer* la Ihe Ashbartoa Goaatf have acquired quite a celebrity for their ■' Inventive talent, the pages of the Govern* meat " Gazette," very frequently toatlfy. Ing to tbelr ingenuity la elaborating improvements upon the farm miohlnerf In uae, and In oonoelvlng appliance*/ . whereby agricultural work may be better '' and more ■oonomloally oatrled on. ICanjr ■ little invention! o(a handy natar9 rhav« 7. originated with fatrmera In thli dtatriot, , their utility being ocmpletely demon- , atrated by the reaulti theyglve. One In the lUt of iaveatorn la Air Henry Sank of Wakanul Road, who laat aeaaon perfeotei a potato planter, for whloh, he aeoared letter* patent, and whloh he worked w!th: ■ the greatest eaaoeis, the reaalti being eminently satlafaofcoiy, 80 satisfied <wai Mr Hant with the aaoaess of hia idea that this yeat he had a maohineoanatrnoted on hie model by Messrs P. and D. Danoan, and tl*ia he la now curing. We had an opportunity of witneising it at work; yeßteiday, and It answers us purpose m a way at which no one can o»vifl. The potatoes are dropped with a precision .whioh could not be attained by any manual planting unless the operator were pro* vided with a rule or pair of compasses, and the work is accomplished With §; _■> rapidity <qnal to what could be done by ~ three hand planters. The oontrlvanoe, whioh is fixed on a three-farrow plough is very timple m oonetiuotion. * The potptoei are emptied into a hopper with ,4 oapaoity about equal to that of an - ordinary sack, Uo one side Is a diso, aboot eight :enloohes or so In diameter, whioh Is made to revolve by n^eans of spindle driven from a wneel attached to the beam of the plough. On the Innet side of the diso, a ihort distanoe from the rim are placed at equal dittanoes apart teveral small eooopi with movable j*ws. Those are fixed to small spindles oonneoted on the outer side of the diso to oatobes whioh are worked by a cam and springe. The effect is that as the diso revolves eaoh set of jaws m iU I urn seizes a potato m the hopper, carries it round to a certain point, when the cam relaxes the jaws anlf the tuber is. dropped into the furrow, the jaws remaining open till they again reoph the hopper. By altering the size pf the sprocket wheel driving the spindle of th« diao the distance between the potatoes: dropped m the furrow can be regulate<!| as, desired. The work is o[one m a. most satisfactory manner, and it is very rarely indeed that a potato is missed or more than one at a time pioked up. Tb,e oontrlvanco oin bo fixed to any kind|of plough, being as well adopted to a single-furrow as to & three fuprow, but with the former, of course, it would qnly be worked wb,ile every third futrow w«| beiftg ploughed, being thrown out of gear while th,e otl^et two furrows weve being turned, so that a sufficient diatanoe between the rows should be preeorved. Mr Huat haa ever/ reiaon to bo proud of his Invention, whioh saving as it does the 1 tbor of three handi as planters, performs iis work m a manner whioh is an nearly aa possible fftoltleaa.