Combination ripper, mixer and planter

Claim 1

In an agricultural implement for working and planting soil, said implement having a cross bar adapted for pulling by a prime mover, the improvement comprising, in combination, a parabolic shank trippably pivotably attached to said cross bar, a pair of mixer wheel assemblies behind and on opposite sides of the shank and adjustably and symmetrically attached to said cross bar, a press pan behind the mixer wheels and flexibly attached to said cross bar, and a parallel linkage assembly attached to said cross bar to pull in parallel spaced relationship thereto a planter bar to which planting means is attached, wherein each of said mixer wheel assemblies comprises an open center mixer wheel and adjustable mounting means, said mixer wheel comprising a circular disk and a plurality of generally axially extending planar blades welded to a face of the disk and which do not extend beyond the circumference of the disk, the disk being held at the center of the opposite face by said mounting means with the plane of said disk forming an acute angle with respect to said cross bar to aggressively mix said soil, and said blades generally paralleling and being slightly laterally offset from adjacent radial planes of said disk to facilitate the blades entering said soil and said adjustable mounting means including spring means yieldingly biasing said disks downwardly with sufficient force to enable the lower peripheral portions thereof to penetrate the soil ripped by said shank, whereby said mixer wheels pulverize and aggressively mix the ripped soil and form a small raised seed bed each blade being notched so that the outer end portions of the inner blade edges fall substantially upon the frustum of an imaginary cone opening outwardly from and centered about a line perpendicular to the center of the disk.