Blade means for row crop thinning machine

摘要

A cutting blade is carried on a shaft rotatable about an axis positioned adjacent a row crop. The blade extends across the longitudinal centerline of the row and cuts plants as the machine moves forward until a sensing means registering on forwardly positioned plants actuates the knife and causes it to rotate rearwardly along the row and away from the next plant in the row to be retained. The rotation continues until a knife portion is now positioned on the front side of the plant to be retained and a portion of the knife extends rearwardly along the side opposite the axis of rotation of the blade. The machine continuing to move forward will again clear plants from the row until the sensing means actuates the blade to rotate again thereby causing predetermined plants to be retained while plants inbetween are thinned out.