AN IMPROVED WHITE-CLOVER CUTTER.
The accompanying photograph illustrates how Mr. C. Woodfield, of Horrelville, Canterbury, has contrived, with a very large measure of •success, to adapt a mowing-machine for harvesting white clover.
The ordinary side-delivery machine does not cut close enough to the ground to catch all the heads, while the speed of the knife is too slow to cope with the heavy swath of green undergrowth. Mr. Woodfield’s aim was to combine the close-cutting virtue of the grass-mower with the collecting and windrowing mechanism of the side delivery. • To gain these points 'he inverted an ordinary mowing-machine, and with the aid of a special casting brought the knife . behind instead of in front of the mower-wheel. A specially constructed platform mounted
upon three small wheels is attached to the knife-bar, and sweeps to collect and deliver the clover are attached to the centre-mounting on this platform and driven by means of a chain direct from the main axle of the mower. A seat is fitted to one side, giving a view -of both the horses and the mower, and by means of a special folding-device the sweeps are raised to clear both the mower-wheel and the driver as they pass. The platform is fitted with a box covered with perforated zinc to catch the threshed seed which invariably falls on the journey from the knife to the windrow, and it is contended that the expenses of harvesting are often collected in this box. A wire connects the trip to a pedal on the footboard, thus enabling the operator to trip the machine when required and so sweep the cut clover into rows behind the mower.
- The photograph was taken when the machine had just finished its fourth season, having cut a total of 250 acres. The marks of hard wear are apparent in many places, while the toothless condition of some of the sweeps bears testimony of work under , many adverse conditions.
—F. E. Ward,
Instructor, in Agriculture, Christchurch.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZJAG19230720.2.14
Bibliographic details
New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXVII, Issue 1, 20 July 1923, Page 46
Word Count
330AN IMPROVED WHITE-CLOVER CUTTER. New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXVII, Issue 1, 20 July 1923, Page 46
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