One-Of-A-Kind Antique Seeder

One-Of-A-Kind Antique Seeder PLANTERS Jimmy Smith Winter Haven Florida recently sent FARM SHOW photos of a rare 3-pt mounted 1-row antique seeder and fertilizer unit he inherited from his dad He wants to sell it but says letting go won’t be easy because of all the memories it brings back “This planter was built in the early 1960’s by Covington Co in Dothan Alabama and was designed to plant and fertilize at the same time I think it was an ingenious piece of equipment and I’ve never seen another one like it ” says Smith “Dad was constantly making minor modifications to the planter to get it to work right “We used the machine to plant our 5-acre market garden up until about 1990 Then it sat behind our shop for many years It has a fiberglass fertilizer hopper on the front and a double metal seed hopper on the back There are 5 curved shanks on the front 2 on each side and a flat blade or harrow in the middle followed by a pair of 12-in dia openers and a big steel closing wheel “The closing wheel was used to chain-drive a shaft and gearbox located between the double seed hoppers The shaft continued forward to the fertilizer hopper and activated a rotating steel plate fitted with eight 1/2-in dia metal pins that stuck out to the side As the plate rotated the pins contact a spring-loaded metal bar which releases a slide gate at the bottom of the fertilizer hopper A small amount of fertilizer would then drop down ahead of the double openers and just ahead of the seeds “We used the machine to plant several different crops including sweet corn watermelons and muskmelons cucumbers okra and squash Dad would drive the planter and my job was to walk behind it and make sure that everything was working right ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jimmy Smith 28 Casarena Court Winter Haven Florida 33881 ph 208 906-7781

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