162 ivJiJPOK.T OF Tum Botanist of thb 



It will be seen that the carrier of this machine is so con- 

 structed that after the first round it sprays two rows at a time, 

 or, rather it sprays one row completely and one side each of two 

 other rows. The reasons for constructing the carrier in this 

 way was, first, that it makes a balanced piece of apparatus. 

 Second, with a heavy machine, carrying such a weight of liquid 

 it was desirable to cover as many rows at a time as possible. 

 When it was desired to spray a single row caps were placed on 

 the ends of the outer telescoping tube of the outside arms. 



LIFTERS. 



Another feature, and one that was found necessary after the 

 machine had been put in working order, is the lifters or rakes. 

 These were found indispensable not only as a protection to the 

 carrier arms but also to lift the asparagus so that it could be 

 sprayed to better advantage. It is essential that the lifters 

 should be adjustable, hence the principle of telescoping was 

 again employed. It was found that rake teeth would injure the 

 asparagus the least, be the least in the way, and add the least 

 amount of weight. Two teeth were employed for each pair of 

 lower nozzles. As shown in Plates XVIII and XIX, they were 

 attached to horseshoe shaped pieces of iron, one tooth being set 

 ahead of the other; the object being to have the forward tooth 

 partially lift the asparagus, the rear one to lift it still higher 

 and hold it until the nozzles had passed. The horseshoe shaped 

 irons were attached to ordinary iron pipe, the latter serving as 

 an attachment bar, the sizes being 1 and 2 inches. This bar 

 was anchored to the rear end of the side plates of the truck. A 

 brake for lifting the rakes was attached as shown in Plate 

 XIX, and so weighted that when released it would lift the rakes. 



The teeth for this lifter should be made to order. Old rake 

 teeth were used as a trial but tempering them to secure the 

 right shape spoiled them so that they either bent out of shape 

 or broke off. 



