International Harvester Co. was formed Aug. 12, 1902, when McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., Deering Harvester Co., Plano Harvester Co., Milwaukee Harvester Co. and Warder, Bushnell & Glessner Co. merged. Cyrus H. McCormick Jr. was named president of the board and Charles Deering was named chairman. In the marketing of farm implements
International Harvester Co. retained the
Deering and
McCormick Deering brands for many years.
With two hoppers, one for seed potatoes and one for fertilizer, this unit was the culmination of a couple of hundred years of invention and experimentation. The only marking to be found on this planter is the IHC logo, but we have reason to believe that it was marketed under the McCormick-Deering banner. If manufactured in the 1930s or '40s, which seems likely, this would be a No. 3. The model No. 4 was a two row planter, essentially the same in design.
A pair of inward facing discs were used to open a furrow into which seed potatoes dropped. The fertilizer dropped in on either side of the row, followed by a piece of seed potato. The two outward facing disc blades at the machine's back would pull the dirt back in to the furrow, covering the seed and hilling the row somewhat. As the accompanying photos show, quite a bit of mechanism was required to accomplish what was actually a relatively simple task.
Ground driven, these units could be adjusted to drop seed potatoes at various spacings, usually from 20 to as much as 80 cm. (8 to 24 inches). The forward pair of inward facing discs are missing from this unit.