I2O FARM MACHINERY 



and especially free from short lengths of weed stems, 

 which are often found in grain as it comes from the 

 threshing machine. These stems or pieces of straw 

 may lodge in the feedway and prevent the grain from 

 getting into the seed wheel. 



CORN PLANTERS 



164. Development. Corn planters are strictly an American 

 invention. This is not strange, for corn, or maize, is peculiarly 

 an American crop. The development of the planter has also been 

 recent; not much over 50 years have elapsed since the planter 

 has been made a success. The Indians were the first to culti- 

 vate corn, but they never had anything but the most primitive 

 of tools. Until the development of the horse machine, corn was 

 almost universally planted and covered by means of the hoe, 

 and in localities where a very limited amount of corn is grown 

 the method is followed to-day. 



The first machines used for seeding were universal in the 

 respect that they were used for the smaller grains as well as 

 corn. Perhaps the first patent granted on what may be styled 

 a corn planter was given March 12, 1839, to D. S. Rockwell. In 

 this planter may be seen in a somewhat primitive form some of 

 the features of the modern planter. The furrow openers were 

 vertical shovels, and the planter was supported in front and in 

 the rear with wheels with the dimensions of rollers. The corn 

 was dropped by means of a slide underneath the box. The 

 jointed frame was patented by G. Mott Miller in 1843. George 

 W. Brown, of Galesburg, Illinois, devoted much of his time to 

 the development of the corn planter and secured patents on 

 many features. To Brown's efforts is credited the shoe furrow 

 opener, the rotary drop, and a method of operating the drop by 

 hand. A patent on a marker was granted to E. McCormick in 

 1855 as a device projecting from the end of the axle. The present 

 marker was set forth in a patent secured by Jarvis Case, of La- 

 fayette, Indiana, in 1857. In about 1892 the Dooley brothers, of 

 Moline. Illinois, brought out the edge-selection drop used ex- 

 tensively on the more recent planters. 



165. Development of the check rower. It seems that all the 

 early planters were automatic, in that an operator was not 

 needed to work the dropping mechanism. In 1851 a patent was 







