Early Ut UiLKANUUOfItUN LANCASTER Dairying was literally going to the dogs a little over a century ago. This quaint description doesn’t have anything to do with the financial status of the farming economy at the time. It has more to do with the ingenuity of early farm families in trying to relieve some of the tedious drudgery that charac terized then- daily lives. And in these efforts, some imaginative dairy farmers tned to utilize the family dog. Traditionally, one of the most tedious tasks on a dairy farm of the past was the churning of butter. An early dairy wife described it this way: “If I had my choice of ironing the week’s wash or churning butter for market, 1 would be hard pressed to make up my mind. Both occupy so many of my waking hours that they also haunt a good bit of my sleeping hours.” Another member of a dairy Rl 3UILDER FOR HIS SPECIAL r J HIDINGS AMD BUMS * LEASE 1T... 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While this epoch of pooch power never really made any permanent inroads into ag technology or even lasted that long, it was a time of unique early ingenuity delving into the dilemma of dairy drudgery. The accompanying drawing shows one such effort to get the Fidos of farming directly involved in the making of butter. This colossal, cumbersome and complicated contrivance shows the lengths that some dairy farm families would go to get away from churning. And equally as ingenious as the II i 3°r " c GRAIN W\im DRYER . LIIMQ 1518 Grain Bin, 2847 Bushel Capacity 1818 Gram Bin, 4173 Bushel Capacity 2118 Grain Bm, 5776 Bushel Capacity CpuTLESy GRAMS BINS, GRAIN LEGS, KWtSUK* DRYERS 2178 Gram Bm 9872 Bushel Capacity 8-13-10 Batch Oryer YOU CAN LEASE THE ABOVE 8-17-15 ContinuowsFkiw Oryer WITH LOW MONTHLY PAYMENTS W mmm To Qualified Buyers | jjg mechanics of this dog wheel must have been the efforts to keep the dog in the proper spot and provide the proper motivation to keep the wheel moving. Any present-day dairy farmers interested in trying this method on a much smaller scale might at tempt rigging up such an ap paratus to the wheel found in the cage of the family’s pet hamster or gerbil. Of course, a teaspoon of cream would be about the maximum capacity of a gerbil powered wheel-chum. Another similarly massive dog power invention featured a round, revolving platform set on its side at an angle. The dog walked round and round and the circular action relayed the power through a system of cogs, gears and walking beam to an upright or rotary chum. But these attempts out of the past to get around the chore of churning were not limited to putting the pooch to work. Some of these wheels were equipped with “motors” that were one-lamb or one-goatpower in size. Another dairy farmer devised a foot treadle that was attached through a network of levers to the dasher handles in the churn Thus, a tapping foot could turn out the butter while busy hands mended a shut or stitched a quilt It’s even said that churnmg contests were held during hoe downs to get some extra use out of the wildlj stomping feet. Here, in southeastern Penn sylvania some dairy farmers put their barrel-shaped chums on rockers Then, an active youngster could be convinced that the chum was really a rocking horse and imaginary rides not only kept the WEETER CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION P.O. Drawer V Knox. PA 16232 PH; *l4-797-5X22 QUILL CONSTRUCTION CO. P.0.80x 6269 Harrisburg. Pa. 17112 PH; 717-545-7527 tot occupied but sloshed out another batch of butter. One evening, a dairy farmer watched the similar action of a rocking chair and the rocking chum The next day, each was connected to the other by a system of levers. Thus, rocking the baby to sleep was combined with butter churning. When stationary gasoline engines came into vogue about the turn of the century, butter chur ning finally became really automated. The most ingenious of the churning innovators out of dairying’s past was the farmer who lashed a jug of cream to each r,t Kic r»art or wawn He RIGGS ENTERPRISES InM BotwM. PA 15531 PH: 514-529-5621 MAG BUILDING A GRAIN SYSTEM INC. P.O. to* 35 SchuyfciH Haven. PA 17972 PH: 1-500-322-9505 DOGhPQ; I W . - r