Row-crop tillage and treating device

A crop row surface-gauged tillage device adapted to travel along and to till row crops, comprising:

• a longitudinally-extending parallelogram linkage one side of which is engaged with a tool bar attached to a propulsion means and an opposite side of which carries surface gauging, discing, and spray nozzle means;
• said surface gauging means comprising a pair of transversely spaced-apart members to slide, skid or roll in tracking relationship along a crop row on shoulders thereof adjoining a crop;
• said discing means comprising a pair of transversely spaced-apart vertical shafts adjustably clamped to said parallelogram linkage and a pair of convex, sharp-edged disc blades each carried rotatably by and transversely to each of said shafts, each said disc blade being adapted to shear an edge of said raised crop row and pass dirt therefrom to one side thereof;
• and
• said spray nozzle means being connected to a source of crop treatment fluid and arranged to selectively spray said fluid upon a portion of said crop row with or without discing.

In combination, a cultivation and tillage apparatus adapted to be towed along one of a plurality of spaced-apart crop rows from a rigid, transversely-arranged tool bar, the apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of cultivator assemblies spaced apart laterally along said tool bar and attached thereto, each said cultivator assembly carrying at least one generally horizontal sweep blade connected to said tool bar by a parallelogram linkage allowing independent vertical movement of said sweep in response to vertical gauging by a fore-running gauge wheel;
• and
• a tillage and crop treatment apparatus carried on said tool bar at a point midway between said pair of cultivator assemblies, said tillage apparatus comprising:
• a horizontally-disposed, rigid mounting frame adapted to overlie a crop row,
• a pair of gauge wheels spaced apart across said crop row to straddle said crop and to ride upon a ground surface of said crop row to gauge said frame vertically of said ground,
• a pair of shanks extending vertically downwardly from said mounting frame, one on either side of said crop row,
• a pair of convex disc blades each rotatably mounted transversely upon a lower end of one of said shanks,
• at least one spray nozzle device adjustably carried by said mounting frame and extending downwardly therefrom to a point adjacent said crop row, and
• a parallelogram assembly linking said mounting frame to said tool bar,
• whereby said cultivator devices and said tillage and treatment apparatus are carried in fixed lateral relation to one another along a crop row but are free to move vertically independently of one another in gauged relation to ground conditions in the paths thereof.