1885 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
45 
futrtn GLoyxts. 
KEEPING THE BOYS ON THE FARM. 
CLEM AULDON^ 
( Concluded .) 
Now, as regards the manner of getting 
them interested in the farm: A job of work 
performed by a boy, because he feels that he 
has to do it, is not likely to be as thoroughly 
done as though it were of his own accord. 
Besides, what he learns from such lessons will 
not make the impression that it otherwise 
would, from the fact that his heart is not in 
the work. 
Jennie Fowler Willing says: “You can 
‘break’ a colt in a month; but it usually re¬ 
quires ten years to break a boy into thorough, 
reliable, working ways.” I have very lit¬ 
tle faith in that kind of breaking. Here, for 
instance, Is a boy five or six years old without 
any playmates. From early morn till dark 
he is busy playing horse, building house, keep¬ 
ing store. He is the busiest mortal on the 
farm. He is never idle. He plans, toils and 
tugs away until he is so completely ex¬ 
hausted that he lies down in the warm sun¬ 
shine and falls asleep. Yet he never thinks 
of getting tired. Here, then, is your engine, 
with the steam up and the tender loaded and 
the boiler full—a boiler that will stand more 
pressure to the square inch and keep the track 
longer than the best “Corliss” ever put on 
wheels. Now don’t run the engine on to a 
side-track, then dump it over and try to 
make a hand-cart out of the material. 
Just use these God-given powers, this 
latent energy, this teeming life, as 
you find them. Always be sure that they are 
directed in the right channel. This boy works 
at his imaginary houses with such untiring 
energy, becauseit amuses him: he is interested 
in it. To him, it is not a momentary recrea¬ 
tion “piped in at intervals”*, it is his occupa¬ 
tion, his business. Non* if you can direct this 
interest in some useful occupation and turn it 
into work with the enthusiasm that he uses in 
building a mud house or riding a broom-han¬ 
dle, he will keep right on, like the spirited 
horse, until he drops in the harness. It is 
his play-house, his hobby-horse, his miniature 
store. It is this element of personal possession 
that keeps up the interest, just the same as it 
is with you. It is my wife, my farm, my 
horse, that makes the object interesting. 
In dealing with boys keep this point upper¬ 
most in your mind, and also, if you are trying 
to give them a lesson in farmiug, that is to 
benefit them in after life, bear in mind that 
there is a vast d [fference between remember¬ 
ing how your father used to do a thing and 
knowing how to do it yourself. Supposing a 
carpenter should take his boy out to the shop 
every day, where he had a tine set of tools, 
and let the boy look on while he morticed and 
planed, and sawed, and suppose he eveu al¬ 
lowed the boy to turn the grind-stone while 
he sharpened the chisel and ground the plaue, 
but told him never to touch those tools, what 
kind of a mechanic do you suppose that boy 
would make/ How would he go about to file 
a saw or sharpen a plane/ Supposing a man 
had a fine carriage team and a hostler to 
groom them, and occasionally took his son 
along lor a drive, but uever allowed him to 
go near the barn or handle the reins, how 
much would he learn auent the care and 
management of horses/ 
Then give the boys a chance. Don’t be 
afraid of being too generous in the matter. 
The first time you go to town, get a Planet Jr. 
garden drill, and a wheel hoe. Then the first 
day when you have a little leisure, take your 
boy and a tape-line and go out into the gar¬ 
den. Tel) the boy that 16K feet square make 
a rod, and 100 square rods an acre. Then 
measure off a piece thirty three feet squares 
(Explain to the hoy how that makes four rod, 
of laud.) Then mark out three more such 
pieces. This makes just one tenth of an acre, 
and as these figures are easily carried in the 
mind, it will give the boy some idea of meas¬ 
uring laud, and enable him to easily estimate 
the amount of ground he has in a crop at any 
time. 
This may be in the form of a square, if you 
choose; but for the purpose of cultivation it 
would lie much better to have it oblong, say 
two rods wide by eight rods long. Now then, 
say to the boy:—“My sou, this is going to be 
your farm, and 1 am going to start you iu 
business. This is what they call truck-farm¬ 
ing. I am going to furnish you with the 
tools and the seeds, uud 1 want to see what 
kind of a farmer you will make, uud how 
much money you can earn. ” 
Then, when the ground is iu proper condi¬ 
tion and the right time arrives, go out with 
the boy and the seed-drill. Fill the hopper 
with onion seed, set the marker at fourteen 
inches, and the indicator at the right number 
for onions. Run the first row through to 
guage the others by, and set the boy to work; 
when the onions are up sufficiently to see the 
rows distinctly, take out the wheel-hoe. Ex¬ 
plain to the boy that the object of hoeing the 
ground is not simply to keep the weeds down, 
but to pulverize the soil and aid the crop iu 
its growth. Tell him that if you should put 
in a garden, and then, after the vegetables are 
up, go to work and tramp the earth firmly 
about the roots, and uever loosen it any, yon 
might not have much of a crop; but if you 
mellow the soil about the growing plants, and 
keep it well pulverized, it enables the roots to 
penetrate the ground, allows the rain to euter 
deeper, and the earth to better retain the 
moisture. Tell him that weeds and vegetables 
don’t do well together—there isn’t room 
enough for both on the same ground, and that 
there is no money to be made in raising 
weeds. Competition is too strong. Tell him 
you hope he will be a different kind of farmer 
from his father, and make it a cardinal virtue 
never to allow a weed to get above the 
ground. 
Then in the Spring send for some straw¬ 
berry plants. “O," you say, “I don’t know 
anything about strawberries.” No matter. 
Get only a few. The boy will learn to manage 
them as fast as they increase. Get two dozen 
plants. You can buy two dozen Wilsons of 
Eastern dealers for 50 cents. Make two sepa¬ 
rate beds of them. Put one dozen in a row 
10 inches apart. Keep all runners and blos¬ 
soms pinched off, and cultivate them all Sum¬ 
mer. Set the other dozen iu a row three feet 
apart. Give them the same cultivation, pinch 
off the fruit stems as fast as they appear, and 
let the runners grow. If it is a reasonably 
good season, by Fall he will have '200 plants 
from the bed that has been allowed to run— 
(the number, of course, will vary greatly, 
according to the variety). Next Spring he 
has an increased capital to operate with—200 
plants, instead of two dozeu—while the bed 
that has been kept in hills will produce a full 
crop during the Summer. This is au “object 
lesson” that is practical, interesting, and pro¬ 
fitable. The boy learns how much fruit can 
be produced from a hill, and how many plants 
can be propagated from a single vine. 
By beginning on a small scale, he learns by 
experience, and will be able to manage the 
business ns fast as it increases. The great 
point is, that he should learn to do what he 
does, thoroughly, and to master the details of 
the busine?s as he goes along. He learns just 
bow much time is required to cultivate 100 
hills, and he knows how many quarts of 
berries those 100 hills will produce. By study¬ 
ing the catalogues and reading on the subject, 
he will become familiar with other varieties 
and he may now send and get a dozeu or more 
of several different kinds. 
He will soon learn which variety is the most 
profitable for hituself, aud also be able to sup¬ 
ply his neighbors with plants. 
By this meaus, you are giving your boy a 
practical education. He will have learned a 
trade that ought to be worth as much to him 
as any mechanic’s. The trouble with too 
rnauy farmers is they never learn their trade. 
By the time your boy is twenty-one, he will 
know how to “take hold” of things, and the 
probabilities are he will have some “manage¬ 
ment. " 
In growing vegetables, if you are new* to 
to the business, you will be careful to proceed 
in a manner that will not dishearten both 
yourself and the boy. The varieties which it 
would be profitable to grow will be determin¬ 
ed largely by your market and your facility for 
disposing of the produce. It will make a vast 
differeuce whether your farm lies adjoining 
the town.or whether you are ten miles from a 
village; whether you are goiug into the city 
every day. or whether you go but once a 
week. You may grow produce that cau all 
be disposed of &t home, or it may have to be 
shipped to some point on the railroad. For 
instance, if you should put in a crop of peas, 
lettuce, radishes, etc., they would have to be 
disposed of just as they mature. They are all 
quite perishable; they may come into use 
just at a time when you are busiest with the 
team; and the gathering and bunching are 
laborious tasks. If you have In early cab¬ 
bages, they will probably mature in the busy 
seasonof midsummer, uud have to lie market¬ 
ed at once, or spoil. If, on the other hand, 
you putin winter cabbages, they would not be 
ready for market till late iu the Fall, and 
they may be sold then or stored for the winter 
or spring trade. So with a great variety of 
crops. Something which would be highly 
profitable to the market gardener near a large 
city, might be worthless to the farmer 
a few miles from town. Early onions 
are u very profitable crop to some 
growers, while to others they would not repay 
the expense of washing and hunching. They 
are perishable, and can only be disposed of in 
limited quantities (unless iu a large city), 
while the common crop of late onious is a 
staple article, aud can be marketed any time 
from early Fall until early Spring. Early 
melons are a paying crop wherever there is a 
market for them; but they have to be sold 
just as fast as they ripen, whereas a crop of 
Hubbard Squash could be marketed until 
frost came, and they might either be disposed 
of in the Fall or wintered over until Spring. 
In case of no home market, they are some¬ 
thing that could be shipped hundreds of miles. 
You must study these things and learn by ex¬ 
perience. if you are wanting in knowledge. 
Finally, if you have an earnest desire to keep 
the boys on the farm, to have a pleasant 
home and a nice family, the application of a 
little common sense will go a long ways to¬ 
wards bringing about the desired result. A 
great many men, through sheer carelessness— 
or pure stubbornness—make every one around 
them feel very uncomfortable. As children 
are susceptible of refining influences, so also 
are their characters affected by the want of 
them. 
If you have ears like that Scriptural animal 
of ancient origin, try to tone them down. Don’t 
be bull- headed. You never made any money, 
and never will make any progress by being 
bull headed with your children. Remember 
the boy is going to be a man some day. If you 
are clumsy and awkward and careless about 
your personal appearance, try to improve for 
your children’s sake, if you are too old to do 
it for your own. Do it for the influence you 
may help to exert upon the coming generation. 
You may feel and believe that you have no 
influence; but you have. You have an influ¬ 
ence for evil, if you have none for good. 
Long after you are laid away in the church¬ 
yard, and the marble slab has grown green 
with moss and lain down to hide itself in the 
grass, and the crocus and the butter-cups are 
the only visitors to the spot—even then, the 
grown up boys and girls whose manners have 
been molded by your conduct will sometimes 
pause in the busy whirl of life long enough 
to reflect and say: “I think he might have 
done better.” 
PRIZE ESSAY.—CLASS X. 
HOW TO PRODUCE A MAXIMUM YIELD 
OF POTATOES. 
The potato crop has become one of vast 
importance co our country. Although much 
fault is found with the nutritive quality of 
the tuber, its consumption, vast already, is 
on the increase, and a potato famine would 
create much sorrow- in our land. The potato 
has become a necessity to the American house¬ 
wife. We can scarcely conceive the enor¬ 
mous crop raised, some years amounting to 
well nigh two hundred million bushels: and 
it is on the increase without supplying the 
demand. 
The potato prefers a moderately cool cli¬ 
mate; there is a belt iu this country particul¬ 
arly congenial to its growth. But it can be 
successfully grown a great distance north and 
south of this belt. Iu view of the importance 
of the crop, much thought has beeu given to 
improving the method of culture, and quality 
of the tuber. Our people have become so fas¬ 
tidious about its quality that much skill, 
putieuce and labor have beeu expended in 
trying to improve it. The potato of to-day 
must have a smooth surface, be well shaped, 
of good size, cook dry and mealy and have a 
good flavor. The potato is nob very particu¬ 
lar about the kind of soil it grows in; but a 
good soil for it should be loose and friable; it 
ought to be porous enough to insure dryness, 
aud moist enough so the potato will get no 
check from drought. Its meehauical condi¬ 
tion is the first thing to look after. It is a 
well known fact that newly cleared land pro¬ 
duces the very best potatoes. It is full of 
roots aud trash, and has a considerable quau- 
tit> of ashes, all of which are prime factors 
iu the growth of a good potato. The potato 
is a great lover of potash aud phosphoric 
acid, and requires a fair amount of nitrogen. 
Those elements are absolutely ueeessary to 
the successful growth of a good potato. All 
things considered, l find nothing equal to 
well rotted stable manure. 
If I had the choice of land aud soil for po¬ 
tatoes, I should choose a north-western in¬ 
clination, and a gravelly or saudy loam, nat¬ 
urally fertile, and a good, stiff clover sod, 
first; but any other sod will do, and I would 
plow iu the Fall. But if 1 had not the sod I 
wanted, l would plow* in the Spring at the prop 
er time. 1 apply my manure, invariably, in 
the Spring. I use mauure iu proportion to 
the fertility of the soil, say, from five to twen¬ 
ty large loads to the acre; if sod land, I apply 
after plowing; if otherwise, before. I'find^t 
very important to thoroughly incorporate the 
manure in the soil. The time for planting 
will depend on the condition of the ground. 
A farmer has to nse his judgment. If he has 
not this important requisite he had better 
keep out of the potato business. If I want 
early potatoes.I plant about the first of April; 
for the medium crop about corn-planting 
time. I furrow my ground from three to 
tbree-and-one-half feet apart, and four inches 
deep, according to the kind of potatoes to be 
planted; for small-topped kinds the furrows 
are the former distance apart; for the larger- 
topped sorts, the latter. I prefer single-eye 
pieces if I have good, medium-sized potatoes 
to plant, and such I decidedly prefer. 
I have tried stem, middle and seed ends, 
and I could see uo perceptible difference; still 
it is a stubborn fact, that, treated alike, some 
hills produce twice as many tubers as others. 
Rolling the prepared seed in plaster is an ex¬ 
cellent plan; never let the seed lie over 12 
hours after it has been cut I have let them 
lie three days to my sorrow. [If they are 
scat tered thinly in a shaded place, they take no 
harm.— Eds ] I cover with a one-horse share- 
plow. In field culture I use a three-cornered 
harrow as soon as the weeds show themselves. 
The use of this in a proper way will be of 
great benefit to the growing crop, and effect¬ 
ually destroy weeds. After this harrowing, 
I uso a spring-tooth cultivator or double-shovel 
plow. I am very careful to work the ground 
when in a proper state of dryness. As to the 
number of times to work, I use my own judg¬ 
ment. I never suffer weeds to get any head¬ 
way if I can possiblv prevent it. Flat or hill 
culture, with me, depends much upon the state 
of the weather. If the season is dry, and likely 
to remain so, [ keep the surface as level as poss¬ 
ible: but if wet, and weeds persistent, I hill up 
somewhat, but not largely. 
Several years ago we denounced “grave¬ 
yard insurance” swindles, in this Department, 
and, although a few of these knavish, incite¬ 
ments to dishonesty, per jury, and murder still 
flourish heie and there, their short-lived ex- 
stence is generally due to the false pretences 
under which they are conducted, as “mutual 
benefit or insurance associations,” and to the 
undeservedly respectable standing of some of 
their managers or directors in the communi¬ 
ties cursed by their presence. The kindred 
“marriage insurance associations,” although 
suppressed by the authorities in some States, 
and far less numerous than a few years ago, 
still outnumber the “grave-yard” frauds, and 
fresh ones, two or three times every year, put 
forth alluring prospectuses and advertisements 
to dupe dolts, and till their managers’ pockets 
with dishonest gains. 
The latest of these that has come to our 
notice, is the “Universal Benefit Association” 
which has “hung out its gilt shingle,” of all 
places in the world, in Boston! In the lan¬ 
guage of its prospectus, it ” is a society of 
young ladiesand gentlemen, organized for the 
purpose and object of contributing, one to 
another, at the time of marriage, thus giving 
youug people money to purchase a home or 
commence business at the real time of life in¬ 
stead of at death.” There! isn’t that seduc¬ 
tive, especially when the prelude to a promise 
to pay 1,000 per cent on an investment, in¬ 
stead of the palt ry six per cent, of the savings 
banks; aud to give in “hard cash”$707 for the 
payment of $32 70! The certificates of the ben¬ 
efit are to be issued in three classes—namely, 
$200, $1,000 and $3,000. Every uumarried per¬ 
son of eithersex is eligible to membership; but 
to enjoy the benefits it offers, a person must be¬ 
long to it at least IS months before marriage. 
If any person dares to marry before the expira¬ 
tion of the 18 months, his or her membership is 
forfeited, and he or she can derive no benefit 
ttierefrom. Here is the way the swindle is 
conducted: A person who wishes to take out 
a $1,000 benefit must pay, in advance, an en¬ 
trance fee of $0, 80 days before the date of 
entrance. He must then pay au annual fee 
of $4. aud, In addition, a monthly assessment 
of $1.10. Of this the $1 goes into the “Mar¬ 
riage Fund,” and the 10 cents pay “the cost of 
collection.” Now, suppose he marries at the 
eud of IS mouths, he will have paid in a total 
of $32.70. But the association requires that 
$250 should be paid iu before the member is 
entitled to the full benefit of $1,000, and un¬ 
der the rules this evidently cannot de done in 
IS months. The management, however, is 
generously ready to assume that this sum has 
beeu paid; or rather, the $250, less the $32.70 
already paid, are deducted from the $1,000, 
leaving $707, which are to be paid to the bene¬ 
ficiary! Thus, for the investment of $32.70 
