One of the renowned tattle planters from the time of the First World War was the two row “Richmond” potato planter, made by John Wallace & Sons, Paton Street, Dennistoun, Glasgow.
In 1915 the planter sold at £15 15s; a single row machine, costing £15, was also fitted with an artificial manure distributor.
The planter was exhibited at a trial of improved potato planters at Liberton Mains Farm, Midlothian, on 25 March 1915 alongside others from by J. Bisset & Sons, Ltd, Blairgowrie, Archibald Hunter, Crossbill Road, Maybole, Henry Davis, 46A Liverpool Road, Hinsdale, Southport, Lancashire, and Thomas A. Scarlett, 22 Market Street, Edinburgh.
There are features on the planter that you will find on more recent tattie planters. The potatoes are picked up from the hopper by a series of buckets, at spaced intervals on an endless travelling chain, and elevated to a point whereby they are then tilted into tubes and delivered at regular distances apart into the drill or drills.
Further information on the ‘Richmond” is available at ‘Exhibition of improved potato planters’, Transactions of Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 5th series, XXVII, 1915, pp. 407-10.
The photographs were taken at the Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore, May 2015 and Strathnairn Vintage Rally in 2013.
© 2016 Heather Holmes
