HARVESTING FLAX 75 



belts respectively. The lower belt is carried by a driving 

 sprocket 8 and a carrier or supporting-like sprocket wheel 9. 

 The upper belt 7 is carried by a driving sprocket wheel 10 and 

 a carrier or supporting sprocket wheel 11. The driving 

 sprocket 8 is compounded with the shaft 12 and the driving 

 sprocket 10 with the shaft 13. The shafts 12 and 13 carry 

 like spur wheels 14 and 15 near their base, the teeth of which 

 intermesh and rotate with like uniformity. Both shafts are 

 supported in the bracket 16. Rotary motion is primarily 

 communicated to the shaft 12 through the medium of a bevel 

 wheel 17, compounded with and near the base of shaft 12, 

 the teeth of which wheel intermesh with those of the like 

 bevel wheel 18 fast to the main driving or motor shaft 19, 

 and which supplies the initial motion to the pulling 

 mechanism. 



The puller belts 6 and 7 are slightly apart in the vertical 

 plane, but they partially overlap each other. The upper 

 belt 7 co-operates with a similar belt upon an adjoining and 

 contiguous duplicate bar 4. The lower belt 6 co-operates 

 with a like belt on the supporting and duplicate bar 4 on the 

 opposite side. The design of this arrangement facilitates the 

 use of a relatively larger number of puller belts, than would 

 otherwise be the case, were all the belts arranged in the same 

 plane. 



Each puller belt is of the sprocket chain type, and com- 

 pounded with a gripping rubber device or other compressible 

 material, between which the growing plants can be gripped. 

 A cover plate 20 is introduced between the puller belts, to 

 assist in keeping them free from clogging with weeds or other 

 foreign matter. The front part of the plates 20 is tapered as 

 at 22 to serve as guideways, assisted by spring guides 21, for 

 the groups of flax plants to the " bites " of the puller belts. 

 They are spaced between contiguous plates, as at 23, sufficiently 

 to allow a free passage for the plants. At the upper and rear 

 ends the cover plates are reduced so as to facilitate the feeding 

 of the plants to the transfer chains and the automatic binder. 



