IHC Potato Digger - Eureka, MT
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 48° 54.338 W 115° 04.974
11U E 640482 N 5418737
This is the second potato digger in the collection, the other probably not an IHC product.
Waymark Code: WMV8K3
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 03/14/2017
Views: 2
Someone had managed to gather together about 60 farm implements and wagons and has decided to put them on display. The vast majority of the farm implements are very old horse drawn machines. The collection includes plows, cultivators, harrows, discs, mowers, corn planters, farm wagons, potato diggers and planters, a hay loader, a manure spreader and three road graders. The display is immediately north of Highway 37 and 1.2 miles west of Highway 93 which runs through Eureka and north to the Canadian border. The site appears to be accessible 24/7/365, at no charge.
This is another of those machines that farmers, in this case potato farmers, were undoubtedly overjoyed to see come to market. This machine was able to dig potatoes by sliding a large knife under the potatoes in the ground, then elevating potatoes and dirt up a chain link belt, through which the dirt, but not the potatoes, fell. After the dirt had fallen out, the potatoes were simply dumped back on top of the ground, ready to be picked up. It was a very clever and very successful piece of machinery.
This model differs from the other in that it has what appears to be a sorting mechanism at the rear. The sorter consists of two levels of steel bars, each with different spacing between the bars. The upper bars, with the largest spacing, are bent to one side so that larger potatoes will be dropped to the side, smaller ones directly behind. Of course rocks will be dug along with the spuds and will be part of the population falling out the back.
