UP-TO-DATE POTATODIGGER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 46, 22 February 1913, Page 5

UP-TO-DATE POTATODIGGER.

A successful trial of an American potato-digging machine has been held at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College (N.S.W.) The machine was first tried in a crop full of summer grass and with tops 2ft high. The soil was dry and fairly loose. Drawn by two horses, the machine worked without a hitch, separating the tops and weeds, throwing them on one side, and leaving the tubers in a row at the back. None of the potatoes were damaged. A more severe test was made fin the river flats, where a crop was growing in an old lucerne paddock. There was lucerne through the potatoes 3ft high, and in places the crop was covered with couch grass. 'Die land, too, had been irrigated, and worked a bit on the wet side, which made the ground very hard. The machined, despite these disadvantages, worked well, the only drawback being that some clods were mixed with the tubers, duo to the faulty condition of the sail. The principle of the machine is a share in front, which cuts beneath the hill, lifting the potatoes and tops on to a travelling elevator with a sifting motion. The tops are separated and, passing over the back are thrown on one side, while the tubers drop in a row on the sifted earth at the rear.