45o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 29 
CHEMICALS, CLOVER, COWS AND LIME. 
A PR08PEK0U8 NKW JERSET FARM. 
Some Methods and Results Analyzed. 
AN OLD STORY.—It is 12 years since I began to 
study the system of farming at Cranbury, N. J., which 
has been called ‘|Chemicals and Clover.” Every year 
since then, with one exception, we have had some¬ 
thing to say about the farm of D. C. Lewis, and this 
year the farm was again visited. It is interesting 
to watch these fields pass, year after year, through 
the regular rotation without any falling off in crop, 
but rather with an increase of yield. 
The rotation and plan of this farm is a simple one, 
and is easily stated. This year, for example, there 
are 16 acres in potatoes, 16 in corn, 18 in wheat, and 
34 in grass. The five fields are nearly equal in size. 
In the potato field one acre is given this year to oats 
and peas, for cow feed. Starting with corn, all the 
year’s supply of manure is spread on a two-year-old 
sod and plowed under. Formerly fertilizer was also 
used on the corn, but since more cows have been kept 
this has not been necessary. Potatoes follow corn, and 
from 1,200 to 1,600 pounds per acre of the Mapes po¬ 
tato fertilizer are used. Wheat seeded to clover and 
Timothy follow the potatoes, the grass being cut two 
years, and then plowed under for corn. I have 
seen the farm pass through more than two full rota¬ 
tions, and it is safe to say that in spite of the heavy 
crops that have been produced and sold, it is now 
more productive than ever. Formerly Mr. Lewis 
was almost careless about the supplies of stable man¬ 
ure. The long stalks were nibbled by stock and 
thrown into the barnyard, to be trodden down by the 
cattle. Now these stalks are shredded—part of them 
being put into a silo. A successful creamery in the 
neighborhood has made it profitable to increase the 
herd of cows. These cows are well fed. All this means 
more and better manure, which is crowded on the 
sod for corn. After three years of this heavier manur¬ 
ing, Mr. Lewis said they begin to see the effect of it, 
particularly in the grain and grass. There has been 
no change in the heavy use of fertilizers on potatoes. 
Mr. Lewis is fully satisfied that this high-grade fer¬ 
tilizer is the best and most economical plant food for 
the potato crop. For reasons which I shall try to 
give later, he believes it would be a mistake in his 
system of farming to use less fertilizer. 
FARM INCOME.—In order to show what this New 
Jersey farm, with about 80 acres under cultivation, 
will produce with this system, I give the receipts for 
the last crop year: 
Milk and calves. $696.21 
Pork . 129.54 
Wheat . 282.57 
Cows . 251.76 
Hay . 831.81 
I'otatoes . 829.54 
Sundries . 16.75 
Total .$3,037.18 
Last year was not a good season for potatoes, as the 
dry weather hurt the crop. Hay brought more 
money than usual. Strange to say, there has been 
less hay consumed on the farm since more cows were 
kept. The reason for this is the fact that the corn¬ 
stalks are utilized as never before. The silo makes a 
place for much of the corn crop, and the dry stalks 
are shredded so as to provide good roughage for all 
stock. The result is more hay to sell, as has been 
the case on thousands of farms where the steel teeth 
of the shedder have torn the stiffness out of the 
stalks. It will be noticed that several cows and 
heifers were sold during the year. It is hard to get 
good farm hands—especially good milkers—that is 
the cry wherever we go. The chief reason for keep¬ 
ing the cows on this farm is to provide a market for 
the cornstalks, which were in former years largely 
wasted. Bran, linseed, cotton-seed meal and other 
strong feeds are bought and fed with the silage and 
shredded fodder, so that the money obtained for milk 
is largely cornstalk cash. Mr. Lewis says that his 11 
head of cattle used barely a ton of hay all through 
the Winter. The cows are good ones, for an aver¬ 
age of about eight of them earned the year’s milk 
money given in table above. 
CONSERVATIVE 'STATEMENT.—It is easy to 
grow enthusiastic over this system of farming. It 
seems so easy to follow this well-devised rotation 
through field after field, crowding the manure upon 
the corn and the fertilizer upon the potatoes, plowing 
about 40 per cent of the cultivated area each Spring, 
and following naturally with planting, cultivating, 
hoeing, haying, thrashing, digging, seeding and corn 
cutting. It sounds easy, but I want to avoid the mis¬ 
take of giving the impression that any man with a 
100-acre farm should sell ?3,000 worth of produce, 
or that he is a poor farmer if he does not do so. 
I have no patience with reporters who attempt to 
draw such conclusions. Mr. Lewis has a farm that 
is admirably adapted to the crops he is growing. It 
is level, well drained and free from stones. I could 
not possibly duplicate Mr. Lewis’s rotation or crops 
on my own farm, because my soil is rough and hilly 
and full of stones, while parts of it can never be 
properly drained. Some of his methods and experi¬ 
ences are, however, of great value to me, and I believe 
they will be to others. I shall try in future articles 
to analyze this system of farming, and see how it 
can be applied to general agriculture. Let it be re¬ 
membered that farming in this section of New Jer¬ 
sey is more than a century old. These farms sup¬ 
plied food to Washington and his army during the 
Revolution, yet to-day they are producing larger 
crops than ever, though all the hay and wheat is 
sent away from them. Hay is said to be the heart 
of a farm, yet this farm thrives with its “heart” 
cut out and a fertilizer bag put in its place! 
When I asked Mr. Lewis to name the most im¬ 
portant experiment he had tried of late years, he 
said without hesitation: “The use of lime!” I will 
try to describe this next week. ii. w. c. 
PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION NOTES. 
BEAUTIFUL DISPLAY'S.—The Pan-American Ex¬ 
position is now in full operation, and the grounds 
and buildings are thronged with visitors every day, 
who are loud in their expressions of admiration for 
the beauty of the buildings and the fine exhibits dis¬ 
played in the various departments. Taken as a whole, 
this Exposition is perhaps the most beautiful of any 
that has ever been made, and it is certainly the most 
beautiful in design and execution of any on this con¬ 
tinent, for I have seen all of the leading ones up to 
the present date. In size, it is not so large as the 
Columbian Exposition at Chicago, but the color 
scheme, which has been carried out in the buildings, 
is much more handsome, being variegated with the 
softest and most beautiful tints which the artist 
could intermingle to produce a charming whole, 
while the buildings at Chicago were, with one or 
two minor exceptions, plain white, which was quite 
painful to the eyes on a bright day. At night the 
electrical display is simply marvelous, and the like 
A WELSH PONY. Fig. 189. 
has never been seen, and perhaps will not be seen at 
any Exposition for some time to come, because of the 
nearness of this city to Niagara Palls, where the 
power is generated which lights the buildings and 
grounds so wonderfully. The electrician who 
planned the lighting of the buildings told me that as 
nearly as he could calculate there were 40,000 lights 
on the Electric Tower alone. 
HOW TO GET THERE.—To those who are coming 
to the Exposition it is important to understand the 
way to enter the grounds, in order to obtain the best 
view, because the two principal street-car lines, and 
also the steam railroad, takes visitors mostly to the 
“back doors”, so to speak, of the Exposition, instead 
of the “front door”, or main entrance. If visitors 
will ask the street-car conductors to put them off 
at Forest Avenue, which runs east and west, instead 
of parallel with the main car lines, and then walk 
either to the Water Gate, or to Lincoln Parkway Gate, 
which latter is the main entrance, they will be de¬ 
lighted with the appearance and spaciousness of the 
grounds, and will have a delightful view of the 
buildings and esplanada as they enter through the 
Triumphal Causeway. The Causeway itself is a won¬ 
derful piece of art. It is composed of four great tow¬ 
ers surmounted by gigantic horses bearing heralds. 
On either side of this main entrance are the princi¬ 
pal parts of the ornamental grounds, where are to 
be seen fine groups of shrubbery and trees from some 
of the leading nurserymen. There are flower beds of 
beautiful design, filled with the choicest varieties 
known. Those who fail to make a careful examina¬ 
tion of this part of the Exposition will make a mis¬ 
take. 
THE FLOWER SHOW.—In coming up the Elmwood 
line of the street-cars, one should get off at the Elm¬ 
wood gate, if he passes Forest Avenue crossing, and 
not go on to the Amherst gate. This will take the 
visitor into one side of the flower gardens, and in 
front of the Horticulture Building. Such a display of 
Spring bulbs has never before been seen on any public 
grounds. The tulip beds in their season have been 
especially fine. One of them contained 1,200 of the 
best bulbs from Holland, which were of different col¬ 
ors and planted in ribbon style. The effect was very 
pleasing. Beds of Hyacinths, Crocuses and other 
Spring bulbs were almost equally gorgeous in their 
gay colors. The pansy beds are still very attractive. 
There is one near the Service Building that is by far 
the largest and most harmonious in its coloring of 
any that I have ever seen. It is a plain ellipse, about 
40 feet in its longest diameter, and planted in bands 
of pure yellow, blue, white, and almost black, i 
doubt if such another pansy bed has ever been 
planted. It stands in the middle of a lawn, that is well 
kept, and skirted with a setting of beautiful shrubs 
and trees. 
In the lagoons and sunken gardens are other flow¬ 
ers, which are beautiful beyond description. Among 
the exotic water lilies will be seen the gigantic Vic¬ 
toria regia and the Nymphmas, from South America, 
Australia, Japan and Africa. One of these pools is 
heated by steam, in order to bring the water to a 
suitable temperature to cause these tender plants to 
grow and bloom naturally. 
THE FRUIT EXHIBIT is continuing to be one ot 
the most pleasing features of the Exposition. The 
supply of apples in cold storage from several States 
is ample to keep the display of that fruit good until 
apples of the new crop are abundant. It is remark¬ 
able how w(dl these cold-storage apples keep on the 
tables. Some of them have endured for four weeks 
without rotting, but, of course, most of them have to 
be replaced after about two weeks of exposure. The 
wrapping with two papers and a uniform temperature 
of about 35 degrees F. seems to furnish just the right 
conditions. New York has the largest apple display, 
but Illinois, Missouri and Ontario are not far behind. 
Oregon, Washington, Virginia, Delaware, Connecti¬ 
cut, Maine and Michigan also have good apple shows. 
The strawberries and cherries are coming in. Florida 
and California are getting in fresh fruits in some de¬ 
gree. Next week I will go more into detail. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
GRANGE INSURANCE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
It is true that our State Grange has secured a con¬ 
trolling voice in the management of an old-establish¬ 
ed mutual insurance company. We have had control 
of the company for just three months, and during 
that time have written as much insurance as was 
written during all of last year. We have already dis¬ 
covered that notwithstanding the assertions of most 
of the mutual companies that their farm business was 
being done at a lo.ss, their agents at least are very 
loath to allow their clients to renew with us. We do 
not believe that the statement so assiduously circu¬ 
lated that farm business is done at a loss which other 
lines of insurance are obliged to pay is strictly cor¬ 
rect. And yet, paradoxical as it may seem, it is pos¬ 
sibly commercially correct. I mean by that when a 
large fire occurs which wipes out millions of dollars, 
such as the recent Jacksonville fire and the historic 
Chicago and Boston fires, causing a property loss 
greater than would occur in all the farm fires of 100 
years, the companies all go through a process of 
bankruptcy and pay only a fractional part of the 
total losses, and then start over again. If such losses 
are fully paid we are confident that farm risks will 
compare favorably with those of other lines. 
But aside from this what are the facts in the case? 
The present rates of the Massachusetts mutual com¬ 
panies, after deducting the by no means certain divi¬ 
dend, are $4 per ?1,000 per year. Compare with this 
the rates of the following which insure farm property 
exclusively: The Androscoggin of Maine, ?2.10 actual 
average for five years, and $1.78 for another period of 
five years. The Sandy and Beaver Valley of Ohio 
$1.53 to $3.23 per year. The Patrons’ Fife and Tor¬ 
nado Company of Kansas, $2.26 average for 10 years; 
the Patrons’ Mutual of New Hampshire, $1.87 average 
for 12 years: the Jefferson County Patrons’ Fire Re¬ 
lief Association of New York, $1.78 average for three 
years. Do you blame us for wanting to investigate 
the subject by a practical experiment? The farm 
property is actually in a class by itself so far as 
hazard is concerned, then it ought to bear its own 
burdens. One thing is certain; while we are demon¬ 
strating the truth or falsity of this statement our 
members are going to get their insurance at actual 
cost. We may be obliged to admit the Patrons of 
Husbandry in Massachusetts are less capable than 
their brothers in other States, but we think not. 
Secretary. e. d. iioave. 
USE FOR THE PONY.—Lady Wales, the Welsh 
pony shown in Fig. 189, is owned by H. J. Kurtz, of 
Covington, 0, These little horses average a trifle 
more than feet high, and weigh from 400 to 600 
pounds. From their ancestors and rugged habits in 
the cold north of Europe, they have inherited strong 
constitutions, and can stand hardship well, though no 
animal shows more appreciation of kindness and 
good care. They are friendly in disposition, and take 
kindly to all sorts of fussing and petting. This makes 
them ideal companions for children. But they are 
more than pets. Some can travel as much as 10 miles 
an hour on the road, and are highly useful on a farm 
where there is considerable ‘|running around” to do. 
The children can harness the pony and drive to town 
for a plow-point or on some other errand, thus tak¬ 
ing the place of a man and hor.se. The pony will pay 
for his keep where there are children to handle him 
and some little work for him to do. 
