Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 25 - A-AUS.pdf/193

 AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY 169 It consists of a waggon, the bottom of which is formed A vei . 7 convenient and cheap form of broadcast seeder by a travelling bed or apron driven by suitable connexions is shown in Fig 10. This machine consists of a seed-hopper, mounted on a special tail-board, which can be substituted for the one generally used by the farmer on his waggon; a driving shaft, also mounted thereon and connected by a sprocketchain with a sprocket-wheel on one of the rear wheels of the waggon; a rotating seed-plate in the bottom of the hopper; and a distributing wheel, shaped much like a wmdmin, upon which the grain falls. The seed is very effectively scattered from the distributing wheel by centrifugal force. Machines used for drilling the seed in rows are substantially like the broadcast seeder, except that the seed falls from the tubes into a boot, as illustrated in Fig. 11. Fig. S.—Fertilizer distributor. with the wheels of the waggon. At the rear is mounted a revolving spiked drum or cylinder, which tears up and distributes the fertilizer as it is fed by the apron. Seeders and Planters. The soil having been prepared, the next step is to sow tae seed, and this is done either by broadcasting, drilling or planting in hills.

Fig. 9.—Broadcast seeder. The broadcast seeder (see Fig. 9) consists of a wheeled fiame carrying transversely thereto a seed-box having a number of seed-cups in its bottom into which the seed falls, and extending through these cups is a shaft carrying feed-wheels, one for each seed-cup. These feed-wheels are similar to a common spur gear, and serve to feed the seed regularly and deposit it in the downwardly extending ubes, where it falls upon an inclined plate and is scattered n all directions. The feed-shaft is made longitudinally

Fig. 11.—Grain drill. Each of these boots is carried on an arm hinged at ita forward end to the main frame, and provided at its lower end with a hoe, which makes a shallow furrow for the seed. In some of the latest machines other forms of furrowmaking devices are substituted for the hoes, and two of these variations are illustrated in Figs. 12 and 13.

Fig. 12.—Shoe furrower. In Fig. 12 the furrow is formed by a shoe consisting of two plates converging at their forward ends, and spaced apart immediately beneath the boot, through which the S6GQ falls into the furrow. In Fig. 13 the furrowing tool is the concavo-convex Fig. 10.—Broadcast seeder. disk, set at an angle to the line of draft as in the disk adjustable, and draws the feed-wheels in or out through a evo ving washer in the side of the feed-cups, thus expos- plough, and the seed is dropped into a space formed g more or less of the width of the teeth and regulating between the disk and a flat plate secured to the lower quantity of seed carried thereby. j • !t lG boot and beai'ing against the concave face of the disk. S. I. — 2 2