462 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 24 
have plenty of schemes and visions in my head.' 1 
Special Punishment; Citizenship.— “How 
about the relations between the boys and girls ? Do 
you find any trouble ? ” 
“ None. There are always the older girls who cor¬ 
rect any misbehavior on the part of newcomers. The 
sense of fitness ard of good conduct grows proportion¬ 
ately with other better qualities. Then unbecoming 
behavior is a crime, like profanity, and the perpe¬ 
trator is arrested.” 
“ Do you not find it-necessary sometimes to resort to 
spanking? If so, upon what authority do you do 
this ? As the Republic is self-governing, just what is 
your own legal status ? ” 
“ I think I must be a sort of court of last appeal. I 
pay the bulk of the taxes, which would, in the legal 
opinion of the boys, give me superior powers. Yes, 
sometimes I am obliged to spank, because of certain 
offenses that can’t be tolerated, and which do not 
come in the category of criminal offenses.” 
“ All along we have talked of the boys. Do you use 
that word in a generic sense—that what applies to 
boys does equally to girls ? That they vote and hold 
office; in short, that your democracy here ignores 
sex ?”• 
“ I do use the term boys in the generic sense. The 
girls do or do not exercise their franchise, according 
to the whim of the party in power. This will continue 
as we use the New York State laws plus the laws the 
citizens themselves enact. This unstable sort of an 
arrangement regarding the girls voting, will continue 
until the New York State constitution admits of woman 
suffrage. The girls, however, have done well, when 
they have had the privilege. They acted fully as intelli¬ 
gently as the boys in public matters, although, as a 
class, they are more indifferent about the elections.” 
“This kind of a community must, also, furnish a 
field for literary talent among the young people?” 
“It does, particularly in the song line. You should 
hear some of their songs—their own parodies.” Pres¬ 
ently, boys and girls began to file in (very nice-look¬ 
ing girls of modest mien), and sitting on benches in 
the court room, they sang with rollicking effect, Mr. 
George with them, one of the smaller boys cuddling 
close to him, and laying his head in the hollow of 
“ Daddy’s ” arm. 
SLOGAN OB’ THE REPUBLIC. 
Hear ye this ! 
Down with the boss ! Down with the tramp ! 
Down with pauper ! Down with scamp ! 
Up with the freeman. Up with the wise. 
Up with the thrifty. On to the prize. 
DADDY’S BOYS. 
They are the cream of the nations, 
The finest of all the creations, 
Exceedingly fond of their rations, 
In that Jr. Republic of ours; 
Oh, there is no need of a horning, 
To get them up in the morning, 
For they hop out of bed without warning—nit— 
In that Jr. Republic of ours. 
chokus: 
Daddy’s Boys are corkers, 
They’re not the kind that’s slow, 
They’re born and bred New Yorkers, 
As I would have you know. 
You may talk about your laddies, 
Y'our little Fauntleroys, 
But they’re all back numbers, 
When compared with Daddy’s Boys. 
THE PRISONER’S LAMENT. 
(Sung to the tune of “ Tramp, Tramp,” etc.) 
In a prison cell I sit, 
Thinking boys and girls of you, 
And the many happy times we used to have. 
But we’re locked up in the jail, 
And obliged to draw the rail, 
From the crooked fence that makes the boundary line. 
refrain: 
Saw, saw, saw we saw the rails, 
Up into pieces for the stove, 
Though our fingers sometimes freeze, 
By the northern chilly breeze, 
And it makes us wish we were in by the fire. 
Have you heard of a Republic away up on the hill ? 
Listen to my tale of woe, 
And my story you will know; 
I arrive from New York City on the seven twenty-nine, 
And ere long they have me up a doin’ time. 
refrain : 
As the keeper stands beside 
With an independent air, 
You will hear him oft declare, 
“ Go to work, or I will smash you there! ” 
And I often heave a sigh 
As he tells the passer by, 
That I’m the man that breaks the stone on the stone pile. 
There is a Republic in Freeville, 
Where the boys and the girls have their own will, 
The laws that we make, they must fulfill, 
In this Jr. Republic of ours. 
After the outbreak of the war with Cuba, they com¬ 
posed and sang with great fervor. 
We love our land, 
For it we’d die, 
To keep Old Glory 
In the sky. 
As a final query to Mr. George I said: “ And how 
have your graduates turned out ? ” 
“ Admirably ”, he said. mart wageb fishes. 
Chemicals and Clover in Drought. 
FERTILIZER FARMING IN A DRY TIME. 
THE OLD ROTATION HOLDS GOOD 
With a Little Extra Help from the Cows 
Part I. 
[editorial correspondence.! 
Ail Old Story.—For the past 10 years, I have been 
talking about the system of farming conducted near 
Cranbury, N. J. Mr. D. C. Lewis is a pioneer at this 
sort of farming, and his farm is a typical one. The 
old rotation was potatoes, wheat, two years in clover 
and Timothy, and corn. Formerly but little attention 
was paid to live stock. The stable manure from the 
YOUNG BUILDERS AT THE REPUBLIC Fig 181. 
few cows and the work animals was put on the sod 
and plowed under for corn. The potatoes which fol¬ 
lowed were fertilized quite heavily with a high-grade 
potato fertilizer. Then followed wheat and grass. 
Usually all the fertilizer used in the rotation was 
applied to the potatoes, though in some cases, small 
quantities were put on the corn and the wheat. Under 
this simple and sensible method of feeding the soil, 
the farms prospered and, with each round of the 
rotation, seemed to increase in productiveness. The 
plan of using all the manure on the corn and all or 
nearly all the fertilizer on potatoes, is usually fol¬ 
lowed in fertilizer farming, for experience shows that 
corn is best able to utilize the manure, while the 
potatoes, being the money crop, make best use of the 
fertilizer. A well-made potato fertilizer will not only 
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE WOMAN’S SUFFRAGE PARTY. 
Fig. 183. 
produce a good crop of potatoes, but will, also, feed 
the wheat and grass, with the possible addition of 
some nitrogen. 
Dry as Dust. — I have never seen the farm make 
such a poor showing as it did this year. The continued 
dry weather has stunted all crops. The failure is 
most noticeable in the grass. Fields that ought to 
cut three tons to the acre will give less than one. In 
many places, the Timothy is nearly as short as a 
pasture. One bad feature is that the clover has been 
largely killed out. Much of it was thrown out last 
Winter, and this Spring’s seeding was a failure. The 
loss of the clover crop is a great blow to these fer¬ 
tilizer farmers. Strange to say, the wheat generally 
looks well. Mr. Lewis has a field that looks like 25 
bushels to the acre at least, but there is little if any 
young clover in it, and apparently, less Timothy than 
there should be. I am quite curious to see what 
these fertilizer farmers will do with this hole in their 
rotation. I would attempt to patch it up with cow 
peas. Break the wheat stubble up after harvest, and 
sow cow peas. They would make a good growth, and 
could be worked under with lime in time for seeding 
to Timothy alone or with clover if desired. This, I 
think, would pay better than to let the field stand 
two years half-seeded to grass. 
Use of Lime. — I speak of lime because Mr. Lewis, 
like some other farmers, has become convinced that 
his farm needs lime. A season like this, when the 
clover kills out, makes this need more evident than 
ever. A neighboring farmer, Mr. Ferris, has been 
using lime regularly cf late, and he has the best clover 
to be found in the vicinity. We saw one field where 
you could tell to a line, by the appearance of the 
clover, where the liming ended. Mr. Ferris has been 
using 12 to 15 bushels of lime per acre, usually on the 
corn crop. He is satisfied that it has made his soil 
more productive. It seems to have been of especial 
benefit to the clover. This is just what we should 
expect from Prof. Wheeler’s experiments with lime. 
Mr. Lewis expects to begin this Fall using lime when 
sowing the wheat. Every year, the wheat field will 
be limed, so that the whole farm will receive its lime 
dressing once in five years. In using this lime, there 
will be no let up in the amount of fertilizer or manure. 
It will not be considered as plant food, but as a soil 
tonic or medicine. All crops will do bet’er for it, but 
especially the clover, grass and grain. In a rotation 
of this sort, the lime should be applied as far away 
from the potato crop as possible. 
TIic Potato Crop. —The potato field is the most 
important thing to look at, for it is the purse crop. It 
bolds the money. That is where you bury the cash 
for the fertilizer, and where you hope to dig up the 
collateral for a bank account. 
“There are 300 good dollars sunk in that field in 
fertilizer and seed alone ! ” 
That is what Mr. Ferris said as he looked over his 
potato field. He did not include the labor or rent or 
interest. No wonder the potatoes are coaxed and 
babied along, cultivated and weeded and watched 
with care. This year the vines are green and strong, 
but scarcely half as large as they should be. Blos¬ 
soms are appearing, and the question arises, Shall we 
still keep the cultivator running ? Usually when the 
bloom appears, it is time to stop stirring the soil, yet 
where shall we draw the line in a season l’ke this ? If 
cultivation is ever necessary, it is needed now, yet 
the dry weather that has stunted the crop has driven 
it along toward maturity. These farmers, I notice, 
do not hill or round up the crop quite as much as we 
do. Our object is to leave the drills in better shape 
for digging. In perfectly level culture, with deep 
planting, it costs about all the crop is worth to dig it 
out. Mr. Lewis says that the use of the we eder has 
nearly ended the work of hand hoeing. They chop 
out some weeds in order to make easier digging, but 
the hand work is nothing to what it was before the 
weeder was used. 
Mr. Lewis says that over 5,000 bushels of seed pota¬ 
toes came on the cars to the Cranbury station. Very 
few growers now think of planting home-grown seed. 
It is strange how new varieties crowd into a section. 
Formerly Rochester Rose was very popular. R. N.-Y. 
No. 2 had a good run, and three years ago, Carman 
No. 3 was to be seen everywhere. This year, the Car¬ 
mans have been mostly discarded, because they failed 
to yield heavily. You see their characteristic spind¬ 
ling, upright stalks in some fields, but Green Moun- 
ta'n and State of Maine, with Hebron for early, are 
the leading varieties. Farmers say, though, that 
they are quite sure to find seed of the Carmans mixed 
through most of the round potatoes they buy. 
Mr. Lewis says that he does not care to raise very 
early varieties. One year, he says, he grew some 
southern seed, and sold the crop at $1.25 a bushel. 
The next in season brought $1, while the late crop 
sold that year for 75 cents. The income per acre was 
just about the same for all, while the risk on the early 
crop was much greater. All through the past years, 
in good seasons or bad, the heavy dressings of ferti¬ 
lizer have been kept up. During the past few years, 
however, the cow has come into the business, and she 
has made a change, both in the rotation and the ferti¬ 
lizing problem, as I will try to explain next week. 
H. w c. 
According to Gen. Greely, the whale, seal, walrus and other 
products of the Arctic regions have, in a little over two centuries, 
contributed about $1,000,000,000 to the wealth of the world. 
Farm Ice Cream.— There certainly seems to be an opening for 
some farmers in the ice-cream business. Reports from many 
parts of the country are that the ice-cream trade is entirely in 
the hands of restaurant men. They either buy cream from the 
city factories, or else buy raw cream of the dairymen, and freeze 
it themselves. In good-sized towns, where there are wealthy 
residents, we think it would be possible for a dairyman to sell 
considerable ice cream. This would be a good way to dispose of 
surplus cream, and the profits would average considerably above 
the returns from that cream when made into butter. 
