Chemical dispenser for a round baler

An improved dry particulate chemical dispenser for a round baler having a mobile frame adapted to move across a field of crop material, a bale forming chamber carried by said frame and adapted to wrap a continuous mat of crop material about itself in forming a large cylindrical bale, and pick-up means mounted on said frame for gathering crop material from the field and delivering a mat of crop material to said bale forming chamber, said chemical dispenser comprising:

• (a) a hopper mounted on said frame for temporary storage of dry particulate chemicals therein, said hopper being rectangular-shaped and formed from contiguous walls including two transversely spaced sidewalls, a front wall, a rear wall, and with the lower portions of the front and rear walls sloping inwardly toward one another for mating with a hollow tube member which is transversely disposed between the lower end portions of said sidewalls in thereby forming the bottom of said hopper;
• (b) a pair of transversely spaced inlet openings provided in the upper surface of said tube member and a pair of transversely spaced discharge openings provided in the lower surface of said tube member, respective ones of said upper inlet openings and said lower discharge openings being laterally offset from one another so as to prevent chemicals stored above said upper surface of said tube member from having a straight flow path from said inlet openings down through said discharge openings;
• (c) a transverse auger supported for rotation within said hollow tube member, upon rotation of said auger, chemicals which enter into said tube member through said upper inlet openings are conveyed along a portion of said tube member and are discharged out through said lower discharge openings;
• (d) a blower having a discharge spout disposed below said hopper and being operable to produce a positive airstream out through said discharge spout, said discharge spout being provided with a pair of receiving openings interconnected and in flow through communication with said discharge openings of said hopper whereby chemicals are dispensed directly from said discharge openings of said hopper into the positive airstream produced by said blower;
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• (e) direction means connected to the discharge spout of said blower for channeling the dry particulate chemicals dispersed within said positive airstream rearwardly toward said bale forming chamber for discharge of same in the form of a plume onto the crop material.