Physical description

HV McKay drill sowing oats

Inscriptions & markings

Photograph of a drill sowing oats in stubble An extract from a publication Australasian 6 May 1922

The economy of this procedure is manifest The spring tynes on the implement are spaced three and a half inches apart in 4 ranks They have 4 inches shares and therefore cut and stir all the soil in this case of two and a half inches leaving a level unbridged bottom The seed and fertilizer in rows 7 inches apart are dropped right on this bottom and there get all the benefit of the moisture raising by capillary attraction and vigorous germination results These combined machines made at the Sunshine Harvester Works are being used on thousands of acres this season for this particular purpose as well as for sowing wheat on fallowed land

Comments by cataloguer The machine pictured sows 12 rows of seed and fertilizer in rows 7 inches apart Spring tyres acted in a stump jump capacity The box along top of the machine was a 2 room apartment unit one for seed the other for fertilizer This was fed mechanically through a distribution which measured the amount of seed and fertilizer being dropped into a common tube where it was controlled in its drop to the furrow cut by the share on the end of the tyres