Rushden Echo & Argus, 19th March 1948, transcribed by Kay Collins
Robot Sets Potatoes
A robot potato planter being used in Yelden Open Fields by Mr. H. Castle, of Middle Farm, cuts the number of tasks in the operation by four.
On loan from Mr. W. Phillips, the robot, towed behind a tractor, sets the seed potatoes in a bed of artificial manure and covers them up in one move. The space between the rows in each direction can be altered to suit the requirements of the farmer.
The machine, however, is not completely automatic and three Land Girls from Sharnbrook camp, Ethel Searle of Bedford, Jean Kerner of Lambeth, and Jean Farrar of Leeds, feed it by hand.
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| Potato planting used to be a back-aching task in the old days, but these three happy Land Girls at Yelden, near Rushden, make a sit-down job of it. Left to right they are Ethel Searle of Bedford, Jean Farrar of Leeds and Jean Kerner of Lambeth. “The Land Army is smashing”, they say as they feed the “seeds” into the robot which not only sets them but adds artificial manure as well. On the tractor is Mr. L. Cowley. |
