Multirow sugar-beet harvester

A machine for harvesting sugar beets growing in at least two longitudinally extending and generally parallel rows, said machine comprising:

• a chassis displaceable along the ground longitudinally of said rows and carrying a receptacle for receiving sugar beets;
• at least two pairs of extractor plows transversely spaced from each other on said chassis at a transverse spacing corresponding generally to that of said rows and engageable in the ground under said chassis;
• means on said chassis for displacing same along the ground and thereby digging up the sugar beets in said rows with said plows;
• at least two respective grillwork wheels rotatable on said chassis about respective nonvertical axes adjacent said pairs of plows and each generally tangent to one of the plows of the respective pair, each of said wheels being vertically superposed with the adjacent wheel and lying in a respective longitudinally extending plane inclined to the vertical;
• a conveyor on said chassis having a horizontal stretch having a forwardly open transversely elongated inlet mouth behind said wheels and a lateral outlet, and a vertical stretch having a lower inlet at said lateral outlet and an upper outlet opening into said receptacle;
• at least two respective guides on said chassis and extending from said wheels to said inlet mouth;
• means on said chassis for rotating said wheels about the respective axes and thereby displacing sugar beets dug up by the respective plows back along said guides into the inlet mouth of said horizontal stretch;
• and
• means on said chassis for operating said conveyor for conveying sugar beets displaced into said inlet mouth by said wheels first transversely and then vertically into said receptacle.