Abstract: A sickle knife system includes two reciprocating sickles each cooperating the same fixed knife guards and each extending across the full width of the cutter bar. The guards have slots approximately twice the height of the guard of a conventional single sickle arrangement so that the two sickles can be run one on top of the other inside the guards. The width of the sickle blades at the rear edge is similar to that of the guard near the rear of its cutting edge. The blades of the top sickle are sharpened to cut against the top surface of the slot and the blades of the bottom sickle are sharpened to cut against the bottom surface of the slot. The two sickles are run out of phase, preferably about 90 degrees, so that as a result, when one sickle is near the end of its stroke within the guard where it decelerates, stops, then accelerates in the opposite direction, the other sickle is starting its cut against the side surface of the next guard.

Abstract: The present invention entails a pull-type tobacco harvester having a mainframe, a tongue projecting from the mainframe, a defoliating unit mounted on the mainframe, and a conveyor assembly disposed adjacent the defoliating unit for conveying defoliated tobacco leaves from the defoliator unit upwardly and rearwardly to where the defoliated leaves are dumped into a trailing trailer. Disposed on one side of the mainframe is a single wheel while mounted to the opposite side of the mainframe is a pair of tandem wheels. The pair of tandem wheels are disposed so as to generally track behind a tractor that pulls the tobacco harvester through the field. In addition, the defoliator unit mounted on the harvester is a knife-type defoliator that comprises a series of bars that include knife elements thereon for cutting leaves from stalks of tobacco passing through the defoliator unit.

Abstract: An apparatus for simultaneously topping and precisely applying sucker control chemicals to tobacco plants and for related uses wherein the apparatus comprises a housing wherein the front and bottom of the housing are open. A blower is positioned in the top of the apparatus for creating a downwardly directed air stream to facilitate decapitating the tobacco plants by a mechanical cutter positioned in the bottom of the apparatus as the tobacco plants pass therebeneath. A pair of spaced-apart rotating belts are located beneath the mechanical cutter and define a pathway from the front to the back of the housing and act to gather tobacco plants at the front and guide the tobacco plants through the housing. A spray manifold is provided for applying sucker control chemicals downwardly in a confined pattern onto decapitated tobacco plants as they pass from the mechanical cutter and beneath the spray manifold.

Abstract: A tobacco harvester for automatically harvesting only tobacco leaves in which leaf stripping claws of leaf stripping chains descend along a stem of a tobacco plant to strip down the tobacco leaves and transporting conveyors transport the tobacco leaves to a storage section. The tobacco harvester according to the present invention having a movable main body; a harvesting mechanism mounted on the main body for harvesting tobacco leaves while the main body travels. The harvesting mechanism having a pair of leaf transporting mechanisms which oppose each other with a clearance through which a stem of a tobacco plant passes, the leaf transporting mechanisms arranged on right and left sides of the main body and having leaf transporting rollers and endless conveyor belts disposed below the leaf transporting rollers which oppose each other and travel transversely to the main body, and leaf stripping chains disposed above and opposing the pair of leaf transporting mechanisms.

Abstract: A plant harvesting machine is organized as a wheeled tricycle having a plant elevator, plant inverter assembly, and plant sticking assembly and designed to move along a row of tobacco plants and successively harvest the plants. The plant elevator includes a powered circular saw blade at its base that severs the stem of each successive plant as the plant is gripped between opposed spike chains of the plant elevator. The severed plant is carried by the plant elevator and transferred to a plant inverter assembly that inverts the plant. The plant inverter assembly includes a spike-plate and cooperating pressure plate assembly that inverted the plant. The pressure plate assembly includes a spring-loaded pressure plate that accommodates plant stems of different diameters and shapes as the plant is inverted. Another set of spike chains engage the inverted plant and impale the plant onto a spear-shoe that is carried on a wooden stick.

Abstract: A harvesting apparatus for use with fragile row crops such as tobacco where the produce or leaves must be handled with great care to avoid breakage or bruising. The apparatus has a conveyor system and gathering chains which receive the tobacco from a cutter and engage the stalks and the leaves separately to convey the tobacco to a processing point. A specially designed dual conveyor system contacts the leaves on two sides to adequately support and transport the tobacco without damage.

Abstract: A tobacco harvester for automatically harvesting only tobacco leaves in which leaf stripping claws of leaf stripping chains descend along a stem of a tobacco plant to strip down the tobacco leaves and transporting conveyors transport the tobacco leaves to a storage section. The tobacco harvester according to the present invention having a movable main body; a harvesting mechanism mounted on the main body for harvesting tobacco leaves while the main body travels. The harvesting mechanism having a pair of leaf transporting mechanisms which oppose each other with a clearance through which a stem of a tobacco plant passes, the leaf transporting mechanisms arranged on right and left sides of the main body and having leaf transporting rollers and endless conveyor belts disposed below the leaf transporting rollers which oppose each other and travel transversely to the main body, and leaf stripping chains disposed above and opposing the pair of leaf transporting mechanisms.

Abstract: A tobacco harvester includes a plurality of linearly spaced tobacco plant engaging flights attached to an endless chain at equal linear distances with the sensing of a tobacco plant at a first position resulting in a cycle of operation occurring to advance the plant from its first position to a second position just beyond the front end of a spear. The plant is centered by an upper driven belt and a lower non-driven belt between which the plant is advanced by one of the flights. A paddle wheel is rotated 180.degree. during each advancement of a tobacco plant from its first position to its second position and aids in advancing the plant between the two centering belts. When another plant is sensed at the first position, the first tobacco plant is advanced from its second position to a third position on a stick at the rear of the spear.

Abstract: A tobacco stripper includes coplanar first and second stripper plates having confronting semi-cylindrical recesses coaxial relative to one another. The first stripper plate is arranged in a spring-biased relationship for contiguous communication with the second stripper plate to receive a tobacco leaf therethrough to effect stripping of tobacco relative to the tobacco leaf stalk as the stalk is drawn through the first and second semi-cylindrical recess by cooperative first and second rollers mounted in a biased relationship towards one another to receive, engage, and draw a tobacco stalk therebetween.

Abstract: An elevating scaffold trailer is provided for transporting burley tobacco stalks impaled on tobacco rods from the field into a curing cell and subsequently out of the curing cell. The trailer comprises an elevating device for raising tobacco rod carrying devices above the height of holding racks within the curing cell. The trailer is transported into the curing cell whereby the elevating device lowers the tobacco rod carrying device below the level of the holding racks so that the tobacco rods are transferred to the holding racks. A method for gathering and transporting burley tobacco to a curing cell is also provided. The method involves using the elevating wheeled scaffold trailer to transport cut burley tobacco stalks to the curing cell and for transferring the tobacco to holding racks within the curing cell.

Abstract: A picker bar assembly for a defoliating tobacco harvester is configured to receive tobacco stalks and strip them on both its descending and ascending runs without damaging the stalks. An improved conveyor has a leaf deflector to prevent carryover and bunching of the leaves.

Abstract: Aligning tobacco plants end to end in rows in a field with leaf ends trailing butt ends as the butt ends are picked up onto an elevating conveyor belt by turning it at the same speed as the ground or surface speed of a wheel of a trailer pulled by a tractor, the elevating conveyor being at one side of the trailer.

Abstract: An endless belt construction comprising a single endless belt composed of synthetic resin material molded integrally with a reinforcing member in a single length passed through the resin material in a plurality of adjacent loops, such loops being spaced from one another.

Abstract: An oval track guides plates with tobacco stickholders thereon around the track so that workers at stations around the track can impale tobacco plants on the tobacco sticks in the stickholders as they pass by or as they are stopped momentarily in front of the workers. A lever-camlike object arrangement opens and closes claws on the stickholders as the lever reaches or touches the camlike object and then passes over it and drops off.

Abstract: The device has a first threshing rotor bearing a first number of radial blades, and a second counter-rotating loading rotor having a different number of radial blades. The rotors are arranged side by side and adapted to be driven in phase at different speeds. A fan generates a flow of air at a region of alignment of the radial blades of the first and second rotors, and the first rotor has a rear outlet for threshed leaves.

Abstract: The leaf-stripping machine of the present invention is provided with a pair of leaf-stripping rollers, the length of which is substantially the same as a tobacco stalk. The leaf-stripping rollers include a horizontal longitudinal axis, extend parallel to and are in rolling contact with each other. A holding frame, on which the tobacco stalk is placed in parallel to the leaf-stripping rollers, is located above the leaf-stripping rollers. The holding frame includes holding rods arranged at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction of the leaf-stripping rollers. The central portion of each holding rod is curved toward the leaf-stripping rollers, and is cut in such a manner as to provide a gap smaller than the diameter of the tobacco stalk. A plurality of partitioning plates are arranged under the leaf-stripping rollers, such that they are spaced from each other in the longitudinal direction of the leaf-stripping rollers.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for automated harvesting are providing. The apparatus includes a mechanism for cutting the stalks of plants being harvested adjacent the ground. An inclined conveyor grasps the cut stalks and elevates them above the ground. The conveyor includes two corners that serve to partially invert the plants as they are conveyed. Cooperating inversion disks at the end of the inclined conveyor complete the inversion of the stalks through 180.degree.. After the stalks are inverted they are conveyed on a spacing and notching conveyor. The spacing and notching conveyor operates at a slower speed than the inclined conveyor so as to reduce the spacing between the inverted plants to a distance appropriate for curing. A notching mechanism cuts two opposed, laterally spaced notches in the stalks of the inverted plants as they are conveyed.

Abstract: A portable curing frame is provided particularly adapted for use with an automated tobacco harvester. The curing frame includes a substantially rectangular frame member including a series of slotted tracks, in the form of slotted tubes, specially designed for receiving a notched portion of the plant stalks. The slotted track is substantially continuous and thereby allows infinitely variable spacing between the plants and optimization of ventilation for air curing. Legs are also provided on the portable curing frame. The legs are displaceable between a retracted position allowing storage of the frames and loading of the frames with tobacco plants and an extended position for supporting the frames and inverted plants above the ground in the field. A locking mechanism is provided to positively retain the legs in both the retracted and extended positions.

Abstract: A sorting system according to the present invention comprises a leaf picking apparatus for picking off tobacco leaves from tobacco plants and dropping the leaves while the plants are being passed through the leaf picking apparatus, a collecting vessel disposed under the picking apparatus and adapted to receive and collect and picked and dropped tobacco leaves, a plurality of partition walls disposed in the vessel and dividing the inside thereof into a plurality of compartments successively arranged in a guide direction across the passing direction of the plants, a pair of inclined guide rails for guiding the collecting vessel in moving in the guide direction, and a rack and pinion for moving the collecting vessel in association with the transport of the tobacco plants.

Abstract: An apparatus for plucking tobacco leaves has a pair of supporting members. These members are positioned on either side of a row of tobacco plants and extend parallel to this row and can move along the row. Two front arms are pivotally connected at the upper end to the supporting members. Two rear arms are pivotally connected at the upper end to the supporting members. A leaf-plucking arm is pivotally connected at both ends to the lower ends of the front and rear arms connected to one of said supporting members, whereby the leaf-plucking arm, the front and rear arms and the supporting member form a parallel linkage. Another leaf-plucking arm is pivotally connected at both ends to the lower ends of the front and rear arms connected to the other support member, whereby this leaf-plucking arm, the front and rear arms and the supporting member form another parallel linkage.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for harvesting tobacco are disclosed. Tobacco stalks are cut on the afternoon of one day and are left to lie transversely of the tobacco field. The next day, a harvesting apparatus is moved through the field and includes an elevating conveyor on which the felled tobacco plants are loaded as by a person sitting in a low seat immediately forwardly of the conveyor. The conveyor and the seat comprise a part of a trailer pulled behind the tractor, and the trailer further includes behind the conveyor a platform on which workers may stand to remove tobacco plants from the conveyor and to impale them on conventional tobacco sticks. The tobacco plants, having been lying overnight in the field, are well wilted and of much reduced weight. A wagon is towed by the trailer in close proximity thereto, and when the sticks are loaded with tobacco they are tipped toward the wagon to a position where they may be picked up by a work person on the wagon for stacking of the sticks of tobacco on the wagon.

Abstract: A tobacco harvester discharge system is provided for uniformally distributing tobacco leaves into a tobacco bin. A set of rolls positioned over the discharge intercepts a substantial portion of the discharged tobacco leaves and directs them radially outward over the width of the bin. A fan located below the discharge blows air under the discharged tobacco leaves to extend the trajectory of the leaves over the length of the bin by a distance roughly proportional to the flow rate of air from the fan from time to time. The flow rate is controlled in a predetermined pattern to obtain uniform distribution of the discharged leaves over the bin.

Abstract: A tobacco harvester includes a self-propelled vehicle frame having driven front wheels and steerable rear wheels. A pair of harvester units are positioned side-by-side on the frame and each unit includes mechanisms for harvesting a row of tobacco plants. Each unit includes a tobacco stalk gripper which conveys a stalk into a cutting blade and which cooperates with an impalement conveyor to impale a stalk onto a tobacco stalk spear positioned longitudinally of the subframe. The impalement conveyor transfers the stalks to one or more stalk conveyors which slide the stalks along the spear toward a stick loading conveyor. The stalk conveyors are operated to time the travel of the stalks between the cutter and the stick loading conveyor. The stick loading conveyor is positioned opposite a stick supplier or magazine which holds a supply of tobacco sticks. A stick positioner receives the sticks one at a time from the magazine and places them on the stick loading conveyor aligned with the stalk spear.

Abstract: Two gears or cogwheels rotating in opposite directions and constructed so that the cogs of each fit most of the way, but not all of the way, in to the grooves or notches of the other, but not enough to intermesh or completely fill the gaps to strip leaves from the stalks as they are pulled between the turning cogs. The leaves fall into boxes or presses beneath the cogwheels, and the boxes or presses may be guided along rollers to the stripping point. One of the two gears is driven by a motor-pulley arrangement and the other gear is driven by the contiguous belts carried by the motor-driven pulley and a pulley coaxial with the other gear.

Abstract: A leaf stripper for tobacco stalks and the like wherein the leaves are removed from the stalks by the stalks being pulled or forced through a cooperating spring loaded scraper bars and a roughly eliptically shaped opening in a flat plate and wherein the leaves are held by the invention until removed by an operator, and wherein the opening can be easily manually opened to allow fast insertion of the stalks by the operator.

Abstract: A tobacco combine comprising a frame operable to be moved along a row of tobacco plants in a tobacco field, a pair of cooperating power driven mechanical tobacco defoliating units mounted on the frame for (1) movement therewith along the row of tobacco plants on opposite sides of a predetermined vertical extent of the stalks of the tobacco plants for removing tobacco leaves attached to the portion of the stalks within the predetermined vertical extent and (2) vertical movements with respect to the frame within (a) an operative range for varying the predetermined vertical extent of the stalks and (b) above the operating range for clearance purposes, a power driven longitudinal conveyor assembly disposed laterally outwardly from each defoliating unit for receiving leaves directed laterally thereby and moving the same rearwardly, a manually adjustable strut assembly for supporting the forward end of each longitudinal conveyor from the frame against a downward movement below a selected position of adjustment but

Abstract: A two row harvesting aid including an easily adjustable, semi-floating, self-steering primary cutter head and an auxiliary second row attachment for harvesting row crops. Self-steering capabilities, a cut-off mechanism and a quick-adjustment are combined into a single integral unit on the primary harvester. Direction sensing is accomplished by utilizing a feeler arm or a set of feeler arms which follow the plant stock row or other protrusions or indentations. Forces detected by the guidance sensors are transmitted to a ring which is a part of the housing and/or shielding of the cut-off device. The steering forces may be transmitted to a steering system through a single connection. The auxiliary second row attachment includes a motor operatively connected to an auxiliary cutter head for simultaneously harvesting an adjacent row of crops.

Abstract: A tobacco harvester includes a distributor placed between the discharge of the conveyor and the pallet. The distributor comprises of a horizontal corrigated disc rotatable about a vertical axis. The disc is rotated by a hydraulic motor and is positioned so that leaves leaving the conveyor on the disc distribute evenly in the pallet.

Abstract: A tobacco harvesting apparatus including a mobile frame, having a cutting station comprising a rotary cutter blade, a rotary paddle assembly, and a receiver for a longitudinally and forward projecting tobacco stick in a stick receiving position behind the cutting station, whereby forward movement of the mobile frame causes the cutting station to move along a row of tobacco plants so that the tobacco stalk is cut by the rotary cutter blade and is impaled and moved along the tobacco stick by the rotary paddle assembly.The apparatus further includes an automatic stick ejector mechanism for receiving the rear end of the tobacco stick and rotating the tobacco stick upward and behind the mobile frame upon actuation by a predetermined accumulation of stalks upon the tobacco stick, and a stick feeding mechanism for feeding one stick at a time from a stick reservoir to the stick receiver, operating in synchronism with the stick ejector mechanism.

Abstract: A leaf stripping machine for tobacco and the like which consists of a framework with a large pinwheel rotatably mounted on a vertical plane at one end of the framework and a stripping implement with a V-groove mounted on a track oriented perpendicular to the plane of the pinwheel. A plurality of tines project horizontally from the face of the pinwheel near its perimeter so that the stock of a tobacco plant or the like can be skewered thereupon. After securing a plurality of plants on the tines, the pinwheel is rotated to position each plant one after another to engage the stripper. When the stripper is driven forward its V-groove defoliates the stalk. When the swath of tobacco is removed, then the stripper operator extracts the stalk from the pin and places it on a pile at the back end of the machine. The pinwheel is then rotated and the operation repeated.

Abstract: A machine is shown for use in a tobacco stripping barn for stripping tobacco leaves from the stalk in three separate Grades. The machine has an elevated, elongated workbench or frame with three work stations side-by-side. Each work station comprises a pair of counter-rotating wheels that are adjustably biased into rolling contact with each other, and an adjustable guide member centered at one side of the wheels on which the tobacco stalk is supported as the stalk is passed over the top of the wheels, and the leaves are drawn down into the wheels and thus are pulled from the stalk to fall into a box or bin beneath the workbench. One of the wheels is motor-driven, and the other wheels are arranged in succession and biased as a group into rolling contact with said driven wheel.

Abstract: An apparatus for priming tobacco plants having stalks and leaves extending outwardly therefrom comprising a pair of intermeshing defoliating units each of which includes a plurality of elongated members having sharp upper cutting edges extending generally in directions both longitudinal and transverse with respect to the row of plants. The units are driven such that the elongated members are moved through an orbital translational cycle in a direction such that the cutting edges of each elongated member will be moved inwardly toward the stalks, upwardly to sever the leaves from the stalks and then outwardly to carry the severed leaves away from the stalks.

Abstract: Tobacco handling apparatus that receives tobacco from a source, such as a trailer, and elevates it by a conveyor to a discharge end from which it is discharged in a flow path having a substantial maximum horizontal extent disposed above a container that has an elongated horizontal extent aligned with and underneath the flow path for receipt of the tobacco leaves in condition for subsequent curing. An oscillatable or reciprocable baffle, or a variable speed conveyor or feed roll is included for varying the horizontal extent of the flow path within the maximum extent in a generally uniform manner to cause the leaves to be distributed substantially uniformly along the elongated extent of the container.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a pull type multi-pass automatic tobacco harvester adapted to be connected to a farm tractor and pulled through a tobacco field for harvesting tobacco within the field. The pull type automatic tobacco harvester includes a main frame that supports a leaf defoliator assembly and a conveying system on each side thereof for receiving the defoliated tobacco leaves and conveying them to an area of collection. Connecting the harvester to said tractor is a hydraulically actuate swingable tongue that is pivotably mounted about the front portion of said harvester's main frame. When pivotably connected to a draw bar on the tractor, said tongue may be pivoted such that the trailing position of the harvester can be laterally varied relative to the tractor such that the defoliator assembly of said harvester can be properly aligned with any one of two adjacent tobacco rows that run along one side of the tractor.

Abstract: A tobacco stripper has a pair of counter-rotating gear belts which are used to separate tobacco leaves from tobacco stalks when the stalk is advanced into a nip formed by the counter-rotating belts.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to an easily adjustable, semi-floating, self-steering cutter head for row crops. The present invention incorporates self-steering capabilities, a cut-off mechanism and a quick-adjustment into a single integral unit. Direction sensing is accomplished by utilizing a feeler arm or a set of feeler arms which follow the plant stock row or other protrusions or indentations. Forces detected by the guidance sensors are transmitted to a ring which is a part of the housing and/or shielding of the cut-off device. The steering forces may be transmitted to a steering system through a single connection. The present invention is particularly useful in harvesting tobacco.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a device for positioning a stick relative to a harvesting aid. The stick holder mounts a stick relative to an operator positioned on a harvesting aid. The stick holder is designed to adjust the height and angle of the stick relative to the operator. In addition, a plant holding trough is provided adjacent to the stick holder to retain the harvested crops prior to a loaded stick being discharged from the stick holder.

Abstract: An apparatus for attachment to the PTO of a tractor or other tow vehicle. The apparatus includes a framework mounting a laterally extending tool bar, the height of which is determined by adjustment of a pair of supporting gauge wheels. The tool bar mounts a plurality of depending pruning heads adapted to remove the lower leaves from a tobacco stalk. Each pruning head contains a pair of laterally spaced rotatable paddles which are mounted for passage adjacent opposite sides of the lower portion of a tobacco stalk for engagement with and removal of the leaves. The paddles are rotated by a series of belt and chain drives which are mounted on the tool bar and connect the paddles to the PTO.

Abstract: A tobacco harvesting machine is shown for use in automatically impaling the stalks of standing tobacco plants onto a tobacco stick that is fixed on the machine in a horizontal position. The machine is a wheeled platform that supports a pair of parallel, rotating augers on which a tobacco stick is positioned in a horizontal, fixed position. The front end of the platform is provided with a wide, inwardly-tapered cutout channel that is aligned with the tobacco stick. There is a swinging pair of knife blades supported from the platform that move between a first inoperative position and a second operative position for forming a wide gap in the stalk of a tobacco plant so that the stick may be forced through the gap. The augers serve to force the stalk of the tobacco plant rearwardly on the tobacco stick. Moreover, there is an automatic cutting means for severing the stalk from the ground after the plant is positioned on the tobacco stick.

Abstract: The problems of properly guiding tobacco leaves to the nip of leaf stripping rolls and limiting leaves from sticking to the rolls, are avoided by providing a member which includes a portion having a planar surface for guiding leaves to the nip and which includes a portion extending axially along the rolls for automatically stripping leaves from the moving rolls.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a pull type multi-pass automatic tobacco harvester adapted to be connected to a farm tractor and pulled through a tobacco field for harvesting tobacco within the field. The pull type automatic tobacco harvester includes a main frame that supports a leaf defoliator assembly and a conveying system on each side thereof for receiving the defoliated tobacco leaves and conveying them to an area of collection. Connecting the harvester to said tractor is a hydraulically actuated swingable tongue that is pivotably mounted about the front portion of said harvester's main frame. When pivotably connected to a draw bar on the tractor, said tongue may be pivoted such that the trailing position of the harvester can be laterally varied relative to the tractor such that the defoliator assembly of said harvester can be properly aligned with any one of two adjacent tobacco rows that run along one side of the tractor.

Abstract: A tobacco leaf stripping machine is provided having an improved tobacco stripping roller that has a radially contoured nose, a transition area and a base portion which primarily engages the tobacco leaf for stripping so as to permit tobacco leaves to be continuously fed along a nip formed by a pair of counter-rotating stripping rollers as well as permitting the stripping rollers to be easily removed from the stripping machine for cleaning.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transferring a pile of foliage from one surface to a second surface comprising an unloading mechanism which will contain and suspend the pile of foliage to permit removal of the first surface and a conveyor system positioned adjacent the unloading mechanism for receiving the foliage and uniformly dispensing it onto the second surface.

Abstract: Tobacco plants are harvested by having an operator ride a harvesting vehicle along a plant row so that as plants are successively cut from the ground by a cutter on the vehicle, the operator may grasp the severed plant and impale the same onto an upright stake likewise carried by the vehicle. As the stake becomes loaded with plants, the operator may remove the loaded stake from its holding socket on the vehicle and lay the same on a rearwardly disposed deck. He then replaces the loaded stake with an empty stake obtained from a supply thereof carried by the vehicle, and repeats the cutting, impaling and replacement steps until a sufficiently large accumulation of loaded stakes has been obtained on the deck. Thereupon, the deck is tilted to an inclined position so as to dump the plant-loaded stakes onto the ground in a pile, whereupon the cycle is repeated.

Abstract: A leaf stripper for tobacco stalks and the like including cooperating leaf stripping means, means for moving the stripping means to form a nip, and stalk supporting an infeeding means including a rotating support table mounted adjacent the stripping means in the area of the nip with the infeed axes parallel to the axes of the nip, and the method for stripping the leaves from the stalk.

Abstract: The herein-proposed harvester is intended largely for tobacco harvesting by the leaf picking, and comprises a self-propelled chassis which carries a conveyer for holding the tobacco stalk in a vertical position, a leaf stripper situated below said conveyer, and a means for withdrawing the severed tobacco leaves, located under the leaf stripper.The leaf stripper is made as a row of parallel drums the shaft of each of which carries augers and brushes, the diameter of the drum with the brushes exceeding the diameter of the drum auger. The auger is made fast on the drum shaft through bushes which are adjustably mounted on the shaft so as to control the angle of the auger helix, whereas the drums allow their angle to the horizontal and the angularity therebetween to be adjusted.

Abstract: An apparatus for stripping the leaves from a cured tobacco plant including a conveyor which receives the tobacco plants with the leaves disposed on opposite sides of the conveyor. A clamping mechanism located adjacent the conveyor means which engages and holds the leaves as the stalk is continuously moved past the clamping means to pull the leaves from the stalk.

Abstract: A cutting mechanism for a maize cutter having several divider plates and at least one outside deflector for directing cornstalks into the maize cutter; the maize cutter also having entry chains or entry bands disposed between the divider plates and also between the divider plates and the outside deflector for holding the cornstalks fast and feeding the cornstalks to the cutting mechanism. The cutting mechanism is a double cutter including upper sets of cutter blades and co-acting associated lower sets of cutter blades, with each of the upper and associated lower cutter blades being arranged in a column. The upper and associated lower sets of cutter blades are laterally spaced from each other to define bladeless sections therebetween. The sets of cutter blades are disposed between the divider plates and also between the divider plates and the outside deflector, respectively, with the bladeless sections being disposed under the divider plates.

Abstract: A system for minimizing manual handling of tobacco leaves for bulk cure comprises a container for use in forced air curing of tobacco in bulk, a kiln having a floor arrangement to effect better control of air flow in achieving forced air cure in such containers and apparatus to facilitate handling of containers from the field, placement in and removal from a kiln. The bulk cure container sidewalls have a plurality of projections to define internally of the container a plurality of obstructions which impede the flow of air along container sidewall interior filled with tobacco in bulk form. The kiln has a floor arrangement which provides a plurality of cavities adapted to sealingly engage container bottoms. The apparatus for handling the containers includes a mobile frame supporting a pair of spaced-apart rails. Such rails cooperate with corresponding pairs of rails in kiln so as to be interconnectable therewith.

Abstract: A wheeled frame or chassis is laterally stationary but movable longitudinally in rolling contact with the ground along several of a plurality of laterally spaced rows of tobacco plants. Vertical support bars depend from the frame to support at laterally spaced intervals corresponding to the rows, horizontal cutting discs mounted for rotation about vertical axes to sever the plants just above the ground. Guide plates affixed to the vertical supports bearing the cutting discs and overlying the discs lift the leaves of the plants and deflect the plants laterally towards each other for adjacent rows during the cutting, with the discs being driven in opposite directions for adjacent rows to cause the severed plants to fall with their butt ends extending rearwardly and with plants of adjacent rows falling on top of each other to facilitate subsequent pick-up.