A NEW POTATO-PLANTER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 6114, 16 December 1898, Page 2

A NEW POTATO-PLANTER.

MR CHARLES ANKETELL'S PATENT. Yesterday a public trial of Mr Charles Anketcll's new potato-planter was announced to take place at Akura. The ground selected for the test was a level paddock of rich and well-cultivated land on the farm of Messrs Auketell Eros. Mr Charles Auketell has been known for yearn prist as a farmer who has been a successful deviser of labour-saving machinery. He is a man not only with practical ideas but who also possesses the mechanical skill which enables him to work them out in wood and iron, He builds as well as plans!

This new machine of his has a homely look, for it owes nothing to cither paint or varnish, but has simply been constructed out of old plough and discarded reaper aud biuder material. Eut it presents such a substantial, compact form that it could evidently be driven over a river-bed without injury. There is nothing very complicated in its structure and when it is put on the market it ought to be mauufactured at from £l2 to £ll, The machine has a marker which guides it, a plough which leaves a good furrow behind it, an endless band which drops the seed potatoes evenly and continuously, aud covering boards which rake the earth back over the seed aud this is all that there is of it,

Tho patent does not rest iu a novel plough, a new band or fresh coverors, for all these points have been made long ago by automatic sowers, the new idea is the application of hand labour to the perfecting of tho work of planting potatoes, As the baud, studded with cups, revolves, two boys on the machine, with nimble lingers drop seed into every cup and with mathematical precision every potato so placed is immediately carried round, dropped into the furrow aud covered up. The automatic feeders, we understand fail to do tho work equally well, as potatoes cannot be fed iu a machine like grain and for this reason the automatic sowers do not give satisfaction It occurred lo Mr Charles Auketell that the one thing needed to perfect the idea of potato-planting by machinery was "the human hand" lo put the seed into tho revolving cups, and this is bis patent by which he has solved a practical dillieully. The Auketell machine docs perfect work. Our reporter watched the plnnter dropping the seed and covering it up, and then, here aud there, in the rows, the seed was uncovered to show that every potato was exactly in tho place where it should be and was properly covered with earth. He also saw seed in tho sumo paddock planted a week ago, which was already sending up shoots through the ground. In two or three weeks time the large paddock promises to bo green with the serried rows of the young tubers, aud a convincing proof of tho good work done by the new planter. It is noticeable that the horses do not tread ou the furrows iu which the potatoes are sown, nor do the wheels of the machine pass over them. The machiue, too, will do good work in rough stouy ground. No doubt the now planter will be in evidenco at our coming Pastoral Show, and next year when it is put on the market it ought to come into general use and receive that appreciation which its merits deserve. It plants from three to four acres of potatoes per diem in the best possible manner, aud is an economical and reliable worker,