Abstract: Apparatus for harvesting row crops utilizing forwardly inclined gripping wheels mounted on the receiving end of a harvesting machine to lift crop stalks out of the ground and hold them for severing by a cutting blade. A low level drive shaft below the gripping wheels drives them through power transmitting means positioned completely below the wheels.Baffle members behind and under each pair of gripping wheels prevent harvesting crop materials being conveyed laterally on a harvesting machine receiving platform from being caught by the revolving pickup wheels and thrown back on the ground. Flexible, brush skirts depending from the stalk gripping wheels assist in moving crop materials rearwardly of the wheels onto a receiving platform.

Abstract: A conventional self-propelled combine has a forwardly positioned platform assembly equipped with a usual transverse auger for conveying cut crop plants to a crop intake which is located in the platform assembly back wall intermediate the ends of the auger. A row crop header mounted from the floor of the platform assembly is comprised of a plurality of transversely spaced harvesting or row units, each of which includes a pair of gathering belts arranged at opposite sides of a longitudinally extended guideway. A pair of discs having upwardly and outwardly inclined peripheral notched sections are positioned transversely opposite each other at the forward end of the guideway. The adjacent peripheral portions of the discs are in an overlapped relation so that the peripheral section of the lowermost disc in the cutting zone of the discs rests on the ground surface.

Abstract: A header section for a tomato harvester wherein a pair of counter-rotating discs are moved along a row of tomato plants with the forward edges below ground level to pick up plants, loose fruit and soil and deliver them to a pick-up conveyor. A first aspect of the invention is concerned with a novel structure of the disks and associated structure whereby plant stems are engaged by the disks, moved rearwardly and pulled upwardly to sever the plant from the roots by pulling and breaking rather than cutting. A second aspect of the invention resides in the resilient coupling of the pick-up conveyor, upon which the header section is mounted, to the rigid main frame.

Abstract: A self-propelled combine has a forwardly extending housing with a row crop header mounted on the front end of the housing. The header has a transversely elongated frame, a transversely elongated floor, a transverse auger immediately above the floor for converging the crop laterally along the floor and discharging it rearwardly into the combine crop feeding housing, and a plurality of transversely spaced row units mounted on and extending forwardly from the header frame, each row unit being adapted to sever the crop standing in a row as the machine advances and discharge the crop rearwardly onto the header floor forwardly of and below the auger. Each row unit has a forwardly and downwardly inclined frame, with a top surface and a central fore and aft trough, which forms the bottom of a fore and aft passageway.

Abstract: An attachment for mounting on a mobile forage chopper is provided with at least one endless belt conveyor and associated crop cutting assembly for severing a crop row from the ground and moving it along an upwardly and rearwardly inclined passage into the inlet of the chopper. A cutting assembly at the inlet end of the crop feeding passage comprises a stationary cutting blade and a crop engaging star wheel which is connected to the front idler of the belt conveyor. The star wheel cooperates with the cutting blade to shear standing crop material from the ground while cut crop material is being moved along the feeding passage by the belt conveyor.

Abstract: Butt lifter roller for lifting the butts of sugar cane sticks immediately after severing by the base cutter in a sugar cane harvester. The roller has V-shaped grooves of varying width extending round its periphery. Cane butts at least partially enter the grooves and are pinched or gripped therein and lifted over the roller by rotation thereof.

Abstract: Roller for feeding wholestick cane from the base cutters towards the can chopping apparatus in a sugar cane harvester. Cane engaging bars are mounted on a central shaft by means of curved leaf springs and accommodate themselves to variations in the thickness of the layer of cane fed, by deflection of the leaf springs.

Abstract: A variable speed feed roll drive mechanism as provided for a forage harvester, the mechanism including a reversible hydrostatic transmission having its input shaft coupled with the chopper input shaft, the output of the transmission being coupled with the feed rolls. The hydrostatic transmission, having an infinitely variable range of output speeds provides the capability to infinitely vary the length of cut of crops passing through the chopper.