Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 439 



This «liows that the Yankees cannot claim the credit of originating 

 this class of dairy appliances, hut per contra., if we may paraphrase 

 Bulwer's line, " Who that hath lived knows not the tender truth " 

 that the bonny milkmaids of our northern land may vie in charms 

 with the royal be'\uty who, by the streams of sunny Italy, sighed for 

 the absent Tancred. 



The first patent granted on an American clmrn was granted to one 

 Isaac Baker, doubtless long since laid to rest under the turf of his 

 tiative Massachusetts, for his letters Were dated. February 20, 1802. 

 Of the peculiarities of the invention we know nothing, and probably 

 can learn nothing, the burning of the patent office in 1836 having 

 destroyed most of the earlier records. We do know, however, that 

 from the date of Baker's apparatus down to the 25th day of May, 

 inclusive, not less than 1,047 patents have been granted in this 

 country on churns alone. Probably in no other department of inven- 

 tion has so much ingenuity been expended to so little purpose. Any 

 dairyman will bear witness that, notwithstanding all the multitudi- 

 nous modifications and attempted improvements, there is no churn 

 so good in practice as the old-fashioned dasher; and with one quali- 

 fication, which "we will presently point out, this opinion is undoubt- 

 edly correct. Still the study of these inventions is well w^orth while 

 as showing tlie manifold mechanical devices that may be applied to 

 secure a given result, and as illustrating how futile a thing mere 

 genius is when kept apart from practical knowledge and a common 

 sense way of using it. In April of 1803 two Connecticut inventors 

 patented a churn that was rocked liked a child's cradle. Five years 

 latter John Devotie of Yernon, N. Y., took a step forward in doing 

 the same thing with a combined churn and washing machine, but 

 whether the purpose to do the washing before the churning, or vice 

 versa, does not appear. In August, 1813, Cyrus Hitchcock, also of 

 Yernon, brought out a pendulum churn, evidently modeled to work 

 after the Indian method to which allusion has been made. In April, 

 1818, one Anthony Ziernan of New York brought the promise of 

 labor, misery and stripes to the canine race, by taking out a patent on 

 the first American dog power for driving churns ; and three years 

 afterward two other inventors of the same State made an additional 

 onslaught on the idle habits of poor Towser by devising another 

 churn, operating apparatus which belonged to the tread- wheel variety. 

 In 1831, protection on a "Method of Churning Cream by Atmos- 

 pheric Air," was granted to Elias Y. Coe, of Warwick, ]^. Y., and 



