An award-winning planter from G. W. Murray and Co – in the early 1880s
The late 1870s an important development in potato planters from G. W. Murray and Co., Banff Foundry. Over a number of years it worked on the design of a potato planter that had been invented by Mr Thomas Ferguson, Kinnochtry, Coupar Angus, Perthshire, and then constructed by Robert Kidd, blacksmith. In 1875 the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland selected Mr Ferguson’s potato planter for a trial of potato planters that had been exhibited at its summer show. However, it did not make the exhibition. Mr Ferguson sold the right of his invention to G. W. Murray and Co., which then, over a period of five or more years, perfected the design. In essence, it appears to have been the first chain driven potato planter (one row or two row) that uses a design that is still evident on some more modern designs. It continued to be improved. Even in 1885 when there were other makers making potato planters, Murray’s machine has “several new improvements which no other machine has got”.
Murray’s planter was extensively demonstrated throughout Scotland. In 1879 and the early 1880s newspaper accounts of it report trials of it in Perthshire, Banffshire Ayrshire, and Dumfries-shire. It was also entered for trial by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in 1879. By March 1881 Murray was advertising “the patent potato planter” as having “beaten every known planter in the World, taking the highest award at every competition, including the Royal Agricultural society of England’s first silver medal.” In February 1885 it listed further awards in an advert in the North British Agriculturist. These were: The Highland and Agricultural Society’s gold medal; The Royal Agricultural Society’s silver medal, the highland and Agricultural Society’s £10 prize; The Highland and Agricultural Society’s £5 prize.
A number of newspaper reports provide details of the development of Murray’s award winning potato planter. These include the following ones:
“Highland and Agricultural Society (from Aberdeen press and journal, 5 April 1879)
Potato planters
The following report of a trial of potato planters invented and made by Messrs G. W. Murray & Co., Banff, which took place on the farm of Niddrie Mains, Liberton, on the 28th March, was read:-“The two-drill machine was tried both with whole seed (seconds) and cut seed (potatoes). It did not work in a manner so as to enable the committee to recommend it. The seed was not dropped equally, and a good many blanks were left. A cup chain gave way, which put a stop to one of the sides working during the most of the trial. The one-drill machine was then thoroughly tested with both kinds of sets, and performed its work very well-so much so, that in counting over a hundred sets dropped only two blanks were found. This machine had the advantage of the drop-spot being much nearer the ground than in the other, which enabled it to deposit the seed more regularly; and the work was upon the whole satisfactorily done. The committee think that the machine might be further improved, especially by altering the construction of the wheels in such a manner as to enable them to keep steadily on the top of the drills when at work. The price is £7 7s, being moderate, and the mechanism strong and simple, and not likely to go out of order; and the committee feel justified in commending it, and recommend the directors to award a medium gold medal.”
“Trial of potato planter (from North British Agriculturist, 4 March 1880)
After five years if experimenting and improving on Mr Ferguson’s patent, the Messrs Murray of Banff have at last succeeded in bringing before the public a potato planting machine that meets the approval and requirements of potato growers. At a public trial on Saturday, on the farm of Ardgaith, Perthshire, this machine worked so satisfactorily that it may now be said that potato planting by machinery is an accomplished fact, and that the inventors and makers will be rapidly rewarded for their efforts in bringing this machine in a comparatively perfect state before the public. Of the utility of this machine no better recommendation can be given than the fact that on Saturday a number of practical farmers gave their orders after seeing the work done. The machine is simple, durable, and had no complicated machinery to go out of order or clag with dirt. And the general impression on Saturday was, that this machine will rapidly find its way into the hands of all potato growers.”
“Coupar Angus (Dundee evening telegraph, 25 March 1880)
Trial of potato planters
A test of potato-planting machines took place on Isla-Bank farm on Tuesday. The machines, three in number (two double and one single), were constructed by Mr G. W. Murray & Co., Banff, the patentees. A good number of experienced farmers belonging to the neighbourhood and from a distance attended to witness the operations, and there was considerable diversity of opinion as to the merits of the machines. Occasionally two or more seeds were dropped together, and now and again a blank occurred, but, upon the whole, there can be little doubt that the work was admirably executed. All of the machines were one horse draught, and with the pair-drill kind eight acres per day of planting can be executed. These machines were originally invented by Mr Thomas Ferguson, Kinnochtry, and the first machine of the kind was constructed in Coupar Angus by Mr Robert Kidd, blacksmith. Mr Ferguson afterwards sold the right of his invention to Mr Murray & Co., the present patentees of this machine. A grubber and digger for stubble land &c, by Mr Murray & Co., were also exhibited at work on Isla-bank farm on this occasion.”
“G. W. Murray & Co’s potato planter (Blairgowrie advertiser, 20 march 1880)
From the many honours Messrs G. W. Murray & Co., of Banff Foundry, Scotland, have been awarded this year for the patent Potato Planters which we have briefly noticed from time to time, we trust we may at length infer that a good potato planting machine is now an established fact. It started off early in the season with the United Banffshire Agricultural Society’s silver medal, following that with the Highland Society of Scotland’s gold medal after a careful and searching field trial. They came in for royal patronage, the trial of which upon the royal farm we noticed in April last. During the autumn months several important trials have been held of potato planters and lifters. The largest we believe that was ever held cane off at Wrizen, near berlin, in Germany, lasting four days, where there were eleven planters and twenty-nine diggers entered, the competition then was held to be the most practical, scientific, and searching test of planters which was ever held, when the highest honours were carried off by G. W. Murray & Co’s planters, as described by a well-known contemporary: “This machine, we understand, has been in hand for several years, and cost a great deal of time and money to bring it to its present complete state. The well-known perseverance and energy of the Banff firm will now be fully rewarded in thus being able to beat the world, and that, too, in an article which during the last ten or twelve years has exhausted the patience and purse of a good few in trying to bring out a good working potato planter.”
The Peterborough Agricultural Society held a great trial of planters and diggers on 24th and 25th September, when large money prizes and silver medal were offered; there, too, Messrs Murray & Co’s planter carried the first prize and silver medal, At the Long Sutton Agricultural Society’s Show, on 8th and 9th October, a large silver medal was awarded to the same machine, and now we have to record the diploma of honour awarded at the latest trial held on 23rd October at Greifswald, near Stettin. We very much regret to learn that owing to an accidental omission to enter it in time the planter will not be at the forthcoming Club Show-Chamber of Agriculture Journal.”
“Agricultural implements at Muir of Ord (from Inverness advertiser and Ross-shire chronicle, 23 March 1880)
Messrs G. W. Murray & Company, Banff Foundry, exhibited among other implements at the Muir of Ord market last week, their recently invented and now perfected potato planter, an implement that is certain to be extensively employed when its invaluable services became generally known to growers. In England and the South of Scotland, as also on the Continent, where hand labour is scarce and expensive, this implement is, we believe, already a recognised necessity on potato growing farms. The highest honours have been awarded to Mr Murray’s planter wherever on trial or in competition with others. The one exhibited on Thursday last is, we understand, to be set to work on the farm of Drummond this week. Mr Miller, Ballintore, is Messrs Murray’s agent.
“Trial of potato planter (Galloway news and Kirkcudbrightshire advertiser, 16 April 1880)
On Tuesday last a trial of Messrs G. W. Murray and Co’s patent potato planter took place on the farm of Mouswald Grange, Grange, occupied by Mr Todd. The implement is very ingenious in construction, but is worked with the greatest simplicity and ease. The hopper containing the roots is formed with two pockets, and the front is made with open bars to allow of dirt and dust falling through. Through the bottom of each pocket passes an endless chain made up of a series of cups. These chains pass up the front of the hopper, over two wheels at the top, and then descend outside the hopper through two trunks, and over two wheels at the bottom. The upper face of the cups is circular and recessed, the size and form being arranged so as to hold only one root. From this face the cup falls away until it terminates with a flat tail, and on the other side is a hook. At the upper end are cast two lugs, with a pin between them, and the chain is made up of a series of these cups hooked together. The pitched wheel, around which they turn, is driven by gearing from the driving wheels of the implement and the speed can be regulated by means of chain wheels. As the chain travels up the inclined face of the hopper, each cup carries with it a root, which is tipped over in the trunk as the chain passes over the wheel, and is carried down with the chain to the bottom of the trunk, where it is discharged into the furrow. The clogging up of the cups by dirt is effectually prevented by the tail forming part of each link, because, as the chain passes around the wheel, the tail of one link is thrown through the slot in the face of the adjacent one, and dislodges anything that may have been deposited there. The carrying wheels of this machines are formed of two wrought-iron bands placed about 6 inches apart, and connected at intervals by slightly concave bars. The patentees have been working on the implement for the last six years, and they are to be congratulated on having at last produced an article as near perfection as can possibly be conceived. The one we saw at work on Tuesday is the first in this district, and it speaks highly for Mr Todd that he has had the enterprise, in these dull times, to introduce the novelty. That the machine will very soon do more than pay itself cannot be doubted, judging from the immense saving of time and labour which it effects. It is beyond all question the best and most complete potato planter in the world, having been awarded the highest honours at every trial, not only in this country, but in Germany when in competition with the greatest number of planters ever shown at a time. During the short period that it has been offered to the public no fewer than fifty-five have been sold in Perthshire alone, and the brief trial which we witnessed was sufficient to convince any one of its practical utility. The machines can plant eight acres a day; they are made to suit different sizes of drills, and the one at work was a two-row one, and can plant twelve, ten, or eight inches apart. The work done was of the most satisfactory character, the seed being planted with a degree of regularity that could not have been surpassed by hand planting. The implement was tried with both whole and cut potatoes, and it exceeded the most sanguine anticipations-indeed, so much was Mr Todd pleased with it that he at once became its proprietor, and we have no doubt its popularity will soon increase in this district. Mr Murray, along with his agent in Dumfriesshire, Mr James Payne, Thornhill, personally superintended the trial. – Dumfries herald”
