Stover saver for combines

Claim 1

In combination with an agricultural combine having an open bottom hood through which coarse crop residue and fine stover are discharged in separate streams, a chopping unit carried by the hood and including: a hopper having a front wall, a rear wall spaced from the front wall, a pair of spaced sidewalls interconnecting the front and rear walls, and an open top disposed to receive said residue, and a horizontal chopper rotatably carried by said sidewalls therebetween for reducing said residue to particulate material and for creating a blast of primary air, said hopper having a lowermost discharge opening spanning the distance between the sidewalls and extending from the lowermost edge of the front wall to the lowermost edge of the rear wall, through which saiD material and said blast of air flow, said lowermost edge of the forward wall being within a vertical plane disposed forwardly of the axis of rotation of the chopper; a collector carried by the hopper and including: an open top trough having a volute, rearwardly opening, eduction tube at one end of the trough extending upwardly and rearwardly from said lowermost edge of the rear wall of the hopper, said trough being provided with a pair of side panels and an elongated, longitudinally arcuate, bottom pan interconnecting the panels, spaced below said discharge opening of the hopper, and merging at one end of the pan with said tube, said trough having a forwardly opening inlet extending from said lowermost edge of the front wall of the hopper downwardly to the opposite end of said pan for receiving secondary currents of air created by the blast of primary air flowing through the discharge opening into the trough; and structure at said opposite end of the pan extending forwardly beyond said inlet of the trough for receiving said stover from the hood and directing the same into said secondary currents of air for projection thereby rearwardly through the trough and admixture with said material being ejected through the tube.