Patent ID: 6952998

Claim:
An agricultural implement, which is arranged for introducing materials into the ground, wherein: the implement includes a knife having an angled blade; the implement includes a drawing means, for drawing the angled blade through the ground in a forwards direction; the angled blade is effective, when drawn through the ground, to create an angled silt-opening in the ground; the implement includes a conduit for conducting the materials to the angled blade; the conduit is secured to the angled blade, and is so positioned thereon that, during operation, a discharge mouth of the conduit is located in the ground at a depth below the ground surface, and is so located in relation to the angled blade as to deposit the materials directly behind the angled blade, in the slit-opening created by the angled blade, as the knife is drawn through the ground; the angled blade is formed with an over-surface and an under-surface, which intersect at a line, and the line defines a knife-edge of the blade; the implement includes a knife-mounting means; the knife-mounting means is effective to mount the angled blade at such an orientation and disposition in relation to the ground, during operation of the implement, that: (a) when viewed from the forwards direction, the knife-edge makes an angle to the horizontal, termed the side-sloped angle, of between 30 and 60 degrees; and (b) the angled blade extends down into the ground to a blade-depth of no more than about 15 cm, measured vertically down from the ground surface wherein the blade is so mounted that, at a vertical cross-section of the blade, taken below the ground surface, substantially no point in or on the blade at that vertical cross-section is vertically lower in the ground than the knife-edge at that vertical cross-section.