352 



iSTATE BOARD OF AGRICUI^TURE 



of planter in which the seed pieces are fed onto a revolving platform. With 

 this type of machine a man or hoy sits on the back of the machine and sees 

 that each pocket of the revolving platform contains one seed piece. The 

 two-man type of planter, if properly handled, will make less than one per 

 cent of misses. The picker or one-man type is likely to make five to twenty 

 per cent misses, and for this reason the two-man type of machine is generally 

 preferred. 



Most mechanical planters have fertilizer attachments that distribute the 

 fertihzer in the bottom of the furrow and cover it with soil so that the seed 

 pieces do not come in contact with it. 



The hand planter or "jabber" is used extensively in the northern counties. 

 It is particularly useful when planting potatoes on new land. When planting 

 with the hand planter the rows are generally marked out both ways with a 

 marker, and the potatoes are planted at the intersection of the marks. A 

 man can plant about one acre of potatoes a day with a hand planter if the 

 soil is mellow and well prepared. If the operator takes care to plant the sets 

 deep enough so that they will be in moist soil, very effective work can be done 

 with a planter of this type. 



Fig. 15. riiarl slmwing leiiKlli oT srowiiig .si'nson in days. 



