Abstract: An agricultural harvester has a chassis carrying a header for gathering a crop. The header is removably attached to a feeder housing for feeding the crop into the agricultural harvester to be processed. A threshing and separating system is connected to the feeder housing for separating grain from Material Other than Grain (MOG). A grain cleaning system is connected to the threshing and separating system for further cleaning the separated grain. The grain cleaning system has at least one sieve operable to oscillate fore and aft and a side shaker mechanism operable to produce a side to side shaking motion in the at least one sieve. A control system is connected to the side shaker mechanism and operable to automatically proportionately increase an amount of the side to side shaking motion as a function of an amount and type of crop being processed.

Abstract: The present invention provides tomatillo ideotypes and tomatillo plants with machine harvestable traits combined with desirable agronomic traits. The present invention also provides methods of making such plants and methods of using such plants to produce additional machine harvestable tomatillo plants.

Abstract: The present invention is a compact fruit-vine harvester and separation system in which the harvested fruit travels along a vertical plane inside the harvester during processing, followed by a single turn for output. The system includes a machine and related methods for harvesting vine-borne crops. The machine provides for vine borne crops to be severed, separated, cleaned and machine-sorted along a straight path before making a single turn prior to exit. The machine incorporates a blower and/or suction system for efficient removal of unwanted dirt, vegetation and debris, and an optional roller to prevent clogging of the suction system.

Abstract: A direct harvester includes a cutting portion, a lifting portion and a feeding portion. The cutting portion typically includes a cutter rod for severing plant roots and a kicker rod for encouraging the plant to the soil surface. The lifting portion typically includes a rotating pickup head for lifting the plants off the soil and separating the plant from the soil, and a pair of rotating tubes to move the plants and encourage further separation of soil from the plants. The feeding portion includes an auger which receives the plants from the rotating tubes and channels the plants into the opening of a combine feeder housing. Preferably, the floor below the auger is screened to allow soil which is knocked free by the auger to fall back to the ground. Additionally the lifting portion and the feeding portion are preferably pivotably attached to one another to enable the harvester to adapt to differing contours in the soil.

Abstract: A crop harvesting combine having a body with a feeder house at its front end. The feeder house carries a detachable header which may be wider than the body and can thus be detached when moving the combine. The feeder house is vertically moveable in an arcuate path from a header ground contacting position to an elevated position. A first thrashing cylinder is in the header and a second thrashing cylinder is at the front of the combine body. The arcuate path of the feeder house has its center approximately at the rotational axis of the second thrashing cylinder so the distance between the axes of the first and second cylinders remains approximately constant as the feeder house is moved vertically. Downstream of the thrashing cylinder are a plurality of separation cylinders, at least some of which have concaves thereunder for reorienting elongate trash before being discharged.

Abstract: An apparatus for separating potatoes from other materials such as soil, clods, stones, herbage, etc., particularly for potato harvesting machines, has a number of roller bodies, which are disposed side by side with parallel axes, form revolving groups driven in pairs in opposite directions and jointly take in a separating segment, which extends from a charging end to a potato-discharging end. The roller bodies are aligned at right angles to the separating segment.

Abstract: The stems and limbs of a root crop plant are lifted from the ground, folded over a gathering bar, and grasped by an auger-paddle. The roots below the crop are severed by a cutter bar which resembles a rod weeder. While the crop is held the soil beneath the crop is pulled from the be in which the crop grows into a furrow on either side of the bed. As much as possible the root crop is cleaned as it is lifted up by the rotation of the paddle-auger while the limbs and stems of the plant are caught within the paddle-auger and held by the helicoil. After they are lifted free of the soil they are moved from two beds toward a furrow between those two beds and discharged in a windrow by a roller which rotates the opposite direction of the paddle-augers.

Abstract: A rotary powered crankshaft affixed transversely underneath a plurality of endless spaced apart conveyor belts on a tomato harvester. The crankshaft having a plurality of offset journals covered with rotatable bearing sleeves equal in number to the belts is positioned to have each journal bearing sleeve strike a belt when the journal reaches a raised position. The striking of the belts causes shaking of tomato vines riding atop of the conveyor belting to dislodge tomatoes which then fall through the spacings between the belts. The bearing sleeves covering each journal are freely rotatable, being sized with an internal diameter larger than the external diameter of the journal to allow both eccentric movement and rotation about the journal. The bearing sleeves are split lengthwise and include snap locks to allow initial installation thereof, and replacement when worn.

Abstract: A shaker assembly for use on chain conveyors on harvesters is bolted to the side frame of the conveyors. The shaker assembly includes two spaced roller assemblies which carry rods of the chain conveyor. The distance between the roller assemblies may be varied such that the degree of shaking imparted to the rods as they pass over the shaker assembly may be adjusted.

Abstract: A harvester for harvesting green peanuts is moved along a peanut bed. A plant conveyor using an angled pair of back-to-back V-belts is arranged to cause the belts to grip the stem area of peanut plants and, as the belts move rearward and the harvester moves forward, the plants are pulled from the bed. Picking elements having a plurality of toothed picking combs move laterally beneath the belts, contacting the plant root structure and removing the peanuts therefrom. Means are provided for removing dirt from the roots, transporting picked peanuts to a storage bin and storing the peanuts therein.

Abstract: A peanuts harvester includes a truck body, plant row dividers, stalk straighteners, peanut diggers, a plant feeder, a tilted conveyer, a horizontal conveyer, a peanut stripper and a peanut collector such that the dug peanut plants are conveyed to the horizontal conveyer where the upper stalks are held by the conveyer and the lower peanuts on roots are stripped by the peanut stripper, whereby the stripped peanuts are screened, cleaned and collected into bags for efficient integrated harvesting of peanuts.

Abstract: A tomato harvester of the type having a main frame and acting to sever the tomato plants below ground and to pick up and elevate them to a tomato separator for separating the tomatoes from the vines. A low elevator segment is separated from an upper elevator segment to provide a gap between them through which dirt clods and some loose tomatoes can fall. The length of the gap is adjustable by moving the upper segment relative to the lower one. The separator includes a walking bar type of shaker with vine retarding tines above the walking bars, and the tines are rotatable and ganged for movement up and down, to adjust dwell time in the separator. The crankshaft for the walking bars has crank pins alternating at 180.degree. and has at each end a pair of timing journals extending at 90.degree. to the crank pins to which the walking bars are secured. The outside journals are located 180.degree. out of phase with the two journals mounted inwardly thereof, to provide two force couples in balance.

Abstract: The upper run of a tomato harvester shaker chain is oscillated by a plurality of rotating arms which contact the chain along each side. Each arm is driven by a separate hydraulic motor, alternate motors along each side, and the motors driving the arms directly opposite one another on the two sides, being of different size or capacity to provide varying oscillatory speeds both along and across the chain. The motors along the two sides of the chain are connected in separate hydraulic series circuits, the flow rate through each circuit, and hence the speed of the motors thereof, being selectively controlled by variable speed control valves. Also, a hydraulic flow divider is preferably provided in the line between the pump and hydraulic motors to supply different proportions of the total flow to the groups of motors in each series circuit.

Abstract: Disclosed is a potato harvesting apparatus for removing practically all the dirt from harvested potatoes without bruising or damaging them. The apparatus has disk coulters that cut potato vines between rows, three each of primary, secondary and rubber-coated cylindrical cages arranged in order for harvesting material flow of the potatoes with the cages rotating at the same material-flow speed, a share that digs up the potatoes for pick up and transfer by the first primary cage, a cylinder raker to pick up and move excess vines, dirt and potatoes onto the second primary cage, shaker-tine assemblies that remove dirt and separate vines from the potatoes, a grinder suction fan that sucks up and deposits chopped up vines in the harvesting track where same are covered by dirt sifting down and through the cages that remove most of the dirt and break up the dirt clods.

Abstract: Mechanical fruit harvesting apparatus comprising a cutter for separating the tree canopy from the trunk thereof; and a conveyor for engaging the fruit bearing portions and for vibrating them such that the fruit falls therefrom.

Abstract: A harvester for green tomatoes growing on vines in a row having a frame mounted for travel along such a row, a knife borne by the frame to sever such vines in the row, a conveyor for elevating the severed vines in the frame, an aqueous bath, a vibrating conveyor above the tank adapted to receive vines with tomatoes adherent thereto from the elevating conveyor and to shake tomatoes from the vines for descent into the tank, a straining conveyor in the bath adapted to strain tomatoes from the bath and to elevate them therefrom, and a source of air under pressure directed at tomatoes removed from the bath to dry surface moisture therefrom as well as a method for harvesting such tomatoes including severing the vines from the ground, shaking the vines to dislodge tomatoes therefrom for gravitational descent therefrom, catching the tomatoes in an aqueous bath, circulating water in the bath to wash the tomatoes, removing the washed tomatoes from the bath, and subjecting the tomatoes to an air blast to dry surface moi

Abstract: A fresh market tomato harvester comprises a leading knife for severing tomato plants, an inclined ascending conveyor for transporting the cut plants upwardly onto the harvester, a shaker bed for removing the tomatoes from the vines, transverse cross conveyors for receiving the tomatoes after they have been shaken from the vines and for transporting them laterally outward, longitudinally extending side sorting belts for receiving the tomatoes and transporting them rearwardly past workers who remove stems and other foreign matter as well as overripe fruit, sizing conveyors for automatically classifying the tomatoes by size and rejecting undersized tomatoes, and, optionally, a washing station for removing gummy matter and dust. The elevator carries arcuate tines, each of which is covered with surgical tubing which extends beyond the end of the metal tine to provide a resilient yielding structure.

Abstract: The drive unit of a conventional mechanically actuated shaker for removing comestibles from their support vines is supplanted by a pair of hydraulic motors capable of effecting extremely rapid forward and reverse movement of the shaker. An adjustable multivibrator circuit produces electrical pulses of predetermined duration and frequency. The pulses activate a solenoid-operated hydraulic valve supplying first the forward motor and then the reverse motor with hydraulic fluid. The quick, snapping action of the shaker afforded by the electro-hydraulic drive apparatus effectively denudes the plants or vines of their fruit.

Abstract: In the process of the invention, the onion stalks are cut and the upper ends thereof are agitated prior to drying thereof to effect removal of the seed capsules from the umbels.The apparatus of the invention comprises means for cutting the onion stalks and conveying the upper portions thereof with the umbels thereon into one end of a perforated rotating drum. A beater is coaxially and rotatably supported within the drum to agitate the onion stalk portions and thereby separate the seed capsules from the stalks and umbels. The drum and beater are peferably rotated in the same direction, but can be counter-rotated. Said seed capsules fall through the perforations of the drum into appropriate receiving means and the stalks and other debris are discharged from the other end of the drum.

Abstract: A tomato harvester includes means for severing tomato plants below ground and for depositing them on a movable conveyor on which the tomatoes are separated from the vines. A plurality of flexible spring-like elements extend vertically downwardly toward the conveyor and are moved transversely back and forth across the conveyor to move the flexible elements into contact with the tomato plants as they are conveyed to assist in dislodging the tomatoes from the vines.

Abstract: An improved oscillatory separator for a tomato harvester includes an agitator assembly for decompacting the vines carried by a plurality of parallel conveyor chains of the separator to thereby permit loose tomatoes to penetrate the vines and fall between the chains and also for transmitting additional shaking forces to the vines to thereby shake more tomatoes loose from the vines than are shaken loose by the receiprocating conveyor chains alone. The agitator assembly includes a tubular member which is adjustably mounted between the reciprocatable side frame members of the separator to extend transversely below the upper reaches of the conveyor chains. A number of agitator bars are fixed in parallel relationship to the tubular member to extend upwardly at spacings thereon such that the bars are positioned between every other chain.

Abstract: A lightweight harvester for a vine crop such as tomatoes planted in spaced-apart parallel rows on seed beds separated by depressed furrows. The harvester has a frame mounted on aligned, longitudinally spaced-apart flotation wheels which are positioned so that they ride on top of the seed bed during harvesting operations. The frame mounts vine pickup, handling and fruit separating mechanisms and includes a knife, aligned with the flotation wheels, for severing the vines from their roots forward of the wheels so that the wheels ride over a relatively smooth seed bed. An outrigger is secured to the frame, extends laterally therefrom and at its outer end mounts a stabilizing wheel which is spaced from the flotation wheels so that it rides in a furrow during harvesting operations. The axis of the stabilizing wheel can be raised or lowered to maintain the harvester in a laterally horizontal inclination when the ground slopes transversely to the seed beds.

Abstract: An improved tomato harvester severs tomato plants just below the ground and picks up the plants. Dirt clods, along with some loose tomatoes, are mechanically separated from the plants, and the plants are thereupon subjected to increasingly vigorous shaking by walking bars having plural upstanding resilient inverted vee projections to remove the tomatoes. The tomatoes are freed of chaff, twigs and other foreign matter and are then carried on a pair of main sorting conveyors past sorters who remove culls. At the same time the clods and loose tomatoes pass countercurrently by the same sorters, some of whom select the good loose tomatoes and place them onto the main sorting conveyor while the loose culls and clods are conveyed to the ground for disposal.

Abstract: A tomato harvester with improved maneuverability and versatility. An improved spinner gives better action in wet soil. The driver obtains improved visibility from an improved canopy structure and is given controls that are easier to identify. An improved collecting conveyor affords balance between the two sides. The conveyor system is improved, in many ways, with better transmission between the conveyors and better access to cleaning. An improved output conveyor and drop loader are also provided.