IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRILLING MANURE AND SOWING WHEAT AND OTHER GRAIN OR SEED
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Peacock Savage at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th May 1874.
I, WILLIAM PEACOCK SAVAGE, of Wood Hall, Hilgay, Downham, in
the County of Norfolk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRILLING MANURE AND SOWING
WHEAT AND OTHER GRAIN OR SEED," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
drilling manure and sowing wheat and other grain or seed.
In the use of artificial manures there is at present much waste; the
manure which is very expensive is usually drilled in continuous lines
over the land, and it is only that part which happens to be in the
immediate vicinity of the plant which is of any use, or at the best all
the rest of the manure lies idle for the season and represents so much
capital locked up.
Now the object of my Invention is by one machine and at one
traverse over the land to drop first a patch or bunch of the artificial
manure, then to cover this patch or bunch with soil, and subsequently

page_text: to deposit the grain or seed on the top of or in the immediate vicinity
of the patch or bunch of manure. As in drills at present employed
I cause the grain or seed to be taken from a receptacle by means of
cups or otherwise, and I cause it to be dropt down jointed tubes to
the coulter which as usual is mounted upon a lever, and the lever
is connected with the other parts of the machine in such manner that
it can rise and fall as it passes over the land. The same lever also
carries another coulter in advance of the first, and to this coulter manure
is supplied in "bunches" in a manner analogous to that in which the
grain or seed is supplied to the hinder coulter. Both the manure and
the grain or seed on arriving at the coulters are stopped by valves with
which the coulters are provided. These valves may either turn upon
pivots or slide and they are controlled by apparatus which moves them
or draws them back at intervals, so as to open passages simultaneously
to the grain or seed and the manure, and allow it to fall upon the land
in two separate patches or bunches at a short distance apart, the
distance in fact which it is desired there should be between the plants.
After the valves have opened the machine travels on the distance
between the patches or bunches, and whilst it does so a scraper con-
nected with the coulter lever turns the soil over the manure, and
afterwards when the distance to which the machine is set has been
traversed, the valves again open and then the grain or seed falls upon or
close to the patch or bunch of manure deposited at the previous
operation. A convenient way of actuating the valves is by a wheel
mounted on the coulter lever and running on the land, such wheel
operating the valves any desired number of times during each revolution;
there are other ways however in which the valves may be opened at the
required intervals, as for example by means of a cam or tappet shaft
driven from the main wheels of the machine, and acting upon levers
connected with the valves.