THE RURAlr NEW-YORKER 
take very kindly to cutting up corn for fod¬ 
der. He says it is more expensive than mak¬ 
ing hay, which can be cut with a mower, 
besides the bother of hauling with horse rakes, 
forks, etc. I agree with him in this, but 
would ask him what he would do if he had 30 
or 40 head of cattle to winter over, and did 
not have hay enough on his farm to feed half 
this number as was the case last year in this 
county. Tame hay was almost an entire fail¬ 
ure; wild hay was not a fourth of a crop. 
After the chinch bugs had taken all the 
barley and wheat that was sown, many 
of our farmers plowed their barley ground 
and sowed it to millet. What was the 
result? As soon as the millet came 
up the chinch bugs went for it and 
cleaned it out in less time than it took to sow 
it. My experience with millet is that it will 
“fatten chinch bugs,” and they love it better 
than barley. The only thing for us to do 
was to cut up our corn, and we did it. Hun¬ 
dreds of acres were cut up in this county, and 
it was about all that many of us had to feed, 
and our cattle look better to-day, after going 
through the severe winter we have had, than 
if they had all the wild hay they could have 
eaten. There was a good deal of fodder 
thrashed, but it requires to be kept dry, and 
if it should be damp when thrashed it is liable 
to spoil. The corn also requires attention. 
VVe did not let our corn and fodder stand in 
the field to be covered up with snow. We 
husked the corn, tied the fodder in bundles, 
hauled them to the barn and stacked them; 
and we handled them with a fork, also. There 
w ill be more corn cut up in Tama County in 
the future than there has been in the past. 
Ihe farmers only realize now how much good 
feed they have been losing or wasting from 
year to year in the past, which they will save 
in the future, even if it takes a little more 
work to harvest it than it would to sow millet 
for the “chinch bugs.” I donotcondemn mil¬ 
let by any means. I think it is one of the best 
crops we can raise for cattle, but when chinch 
bugs are plenty, one should let millet alone. 
Tama Co., Ia. • “an iowa farmer.” 
FACTS ABOUT THE OAT CROP. 
Present prices likely to be maintained; early 
oats sure to be the most profitable; how to 
secure them. 
As it will soon be time for sowing oats, 
perhaps it will not be out of place to offer a 
few suggestions derived from the experience 
of the last few years, in regard to handling 
the crop to get the greatest profit. This year 
there will probably be a much larger acreage 
than usual, not because oats are thought to be 
a surer crop tnan corn, wheat or rye, but be¬ 
cause most farmers (especially renters) are 
short of money, and oats can be realized from 
sooner than any other spring field crop. 
Now, oats, in all probability, will hold to 
present prices (with chances of a rise rather 
than a decline) until the new crop is put on 
the market, when they will, of course, fall in 
prices, according to the supply. Taking it 
for granted that we have an average year, it 
is plainly to be seen that the first oats in the 
market will bring the highest price. 
To those that are obliged to sell in the fall, 
the objective point is to get the crop into a 
marketable condition as early as possible. 
The main essentials to secure an early har¬ 
vest are early sowing, on fall plowing, if pos¬ 
sible; a well pulverized and level seed-bed— 
the more level the seed-bed the more evenly 
the oats will ripen. 
A good way to sow a large field is to go 
around, instead of crossing back and forth, 
keeping the geared wheel of the seeder on the 
outside, so it will sow in turning the corners. 
1 hen, when you come to harvesting, go 
around the same way; then your last sowing 
will be cut last. Set the grain up in small, 
round shocks with one cap, as soon as cut, 
giving the air a chance to dry out as quickly 
as possible. 
Have a thrasher engaged beforehand, and 
just as quick as the grain will do, thrash it 
from the shock (getting a little extra help) and 
haul to market from the machine. Often¬ 
times one day will make a difference of sev¬ 
eral cents per bushel. 
Several years ago, when twine-binders first 
came into general use in this vicinity, the 
writer’s father had one field of 50 acres that 
was sowed very early upon fall plowing. He 
purchased a twine binder and cut, thrashed 
and delivered them at the elevator inside of 
six days. He had 2,250 bushels receiving 45 
< ents per bushel; inside of one week the prtce 
di opped to 33 cents. The difference in price 
just paid for the binder—§270. 
W. D. HERRICK. 
p.OTOolof(ic.al. 
THE BETHEL APPLE. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M.D. 
Former scarcity of “ iron-clads ;” Peach of 
Montreal and Oldenburgh ; Tetofsky; Fa¬ 
meuse-, Scott's Winter ; Bethel of Vermont ; 
the Bethel, though a thorough iron-clad 
is little known ; why; a tardy bearer at 
first, with age it becomes a prolific bearer ; 
is it to have a boom? 
An observer and experimenter with tree 
fruits in the “cold North,” is able to come to 
positive conclusions about the value of varie¬ 
ties only by slow degrees. When I began, in 
1866, to make fruit growing a study, in North¬ 
eastern Vermont, not a single apple, other 
than the Siberian Crabs, was known to be 
capable of enduring the severity of the win¬ 
ters long enough to be profitable. Soon after¬ 
wards, two September apples—the Peach of 
Montreal and the Duchess of Oldenburgh— 
nown the Wealthy came along, and all at 
tention was diverted to that remarkable ap¬ 
ple, so good, so handsome, and such an early 
and profuse bearer. 
1 he experiences of the last four winters, 
three of them being of almost unexampled 
severity, have shown us that the Wealthy, 
though very hardy, cannot be regarded as a 
true iron-clad, and that, like the Baldwin 
along its Northern limit, it will have to be 
top-grafted on a hardier stock, in order to 
make a long-lived and profitable tree. In the 
meantime, what few Bethels had been planted 
have shown remarkable vitality and vigor, 
while, with increases of age, the trees demon¬ 
strated that, like the Northern Spy, they onlj 
wanted time to prove themselves not inferior 
to any other sort in productiveness and regu¬ 
lar bearing. The past season of 1887 was the 
poorest apple year ever known in Northern 
Vermont, at least for a long time. The trees 
were weakened by the great crop of 1886; and 
the almost unexampled cold of the succeeding 
winter destroyed nearly all che root-grafted 
Fameuse, and greatly weakened the Weal- 
TIMELY CARDEN NOTES. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
Plant in rows for horse cultivation; arti¬ 
chokes; radish ; beans; carrots ; beets ; 
leaks; onions; parsley; parsnips; peas ; 
lettuce; cucumbers ; cauliflowers ; toma¬ 
toes; melons; rhubarb; spinach; tur- 
nips; asparagus; preparation of the soil; 
hot beds. 
We had, as usual, planned to sow all of the 
■so-called new varieties of oats this spring; but 
the season is late without a precedent, aud at 
this writing it is doubtful if we shall sow any. 
All work is sadly behind. 
BETHEL APPLE. From Nature. 
Fig. 
93. 
were discovered, by actual trial, to endure the 
cold, grow thriftily and bear profusely. This 
gave great encouragement to experimenters, 
because it proved-that some good apples could 
be grown in such a high latitude and altitude 
—45° north, and at an average hight of 1,000 
feet above the sea, upon the divide between 
the tributaries of the Connecticut and St. 
Lawrence Rivers. A few years later the 
Tetofsky, an August apple, was introduced, 
and proved equally hardy; and it was subse¬ 
quently found that the Fameuse, when graft¬ 
ed in the top of Totofsky trees, would suc¬ 
ceed tolerably well. In the winter of 1869- 
70 there were distributed from the Na¬ 
tional Department of Agriculture cions of 
a large number of Russian apples, from 
which has been selected a good list of ap- 
thy. Scott’s Winter was unharmed in tree 
aud bore a very fair crop, considering the 
large one of the year before. But the Bethel 
trees everywhere came out entirely unharm¬ 
ed, and bore heavy crops of very perfect 
fruit. There is likely, now, to be a Bethel 
boom in this vicinity, and it is a real misfor¬ 
tune that no nurseryman has any stock of the 
variety the Scott and the Wealthy having 
monopolized attention, and the Bethel being in 
such ill repute from its slowness in coming to 
bearing. As so long a testing gives ground for a 
strong confidence in the extreme hardiness of 
this variety, and has revealed the fact that it 
is really a productive tree when old enough, 
I have thought it well to send the Rural a 
specimen for testing and also for illustration 
if thought best. [The apple is shown at Figs. 
X-U-Y 
BETHEL APPLE. Half Section. 
Fig. 
94. 
pies for all uses, but none of them a very long 
keeper. Meantime, there had been an active 
search for native seedlings, noted for their 
power of resisting low temperatures. Among 
those first discovered were Scott’s Winter, 
first figured some 10 years ago in the Rural, 
and the “Bethel of Vermont.” The first 
named is a red apple of medium size and fair 
quality, the tree a vigorous grower, an early 
and free bearer, with fruit keeping well into 
the spring, and,with good care, as late as Au¬ 
gust. I his variety has now become widely 
distributed, and is offered for sale by all the 
leading nurserymen of the cold North, both 
East and West. Much less has been known of 
the Bethel. Although quite “iron-clad,” it 
was found to be a shy and tardy bearer, when 
young, and just as its merits began to be 
93-94. Eds.] It is as large, as handsome aud 
as good a keeper as the Baldwin. I think 
it also as good in quality as that variety, and 
likely to be quite as salable. I wish to add 
that unfortunately I have, in my large or¬ 
chard, but one Bethel tree, and do not know 
even where many cions could be had. It is 
probably grown more largely in the town for 
which it is named aud in the other towns of 
the White River Valley, than elsewhere. I 
wi ite merely that the searchers for good win¬ 
ter iron clads may make a note of the Bethel 
as a well tested and promising sort. 
[Dr. Hoskins writes us that he has, since 
writing the above article, learned that cions 
of the Bethel can be had in quantity of Miller 
& House, nurserymen, Derby, Vt. He thinks 
they are a reliable firm.— Eds.] 
The Easiest Kind of Gardening is plant¬ 
ing in long rows so that we can use a horse cul¬ 
tivator between our crops. Anything that 
needs hand cultivating is apt to get neglected. 
We have several short-lived vegetables, as 
spinach, lettuces, and radishes, that we want 
only a few of at a time. Well, we needn’t 
sow these in rows by themselves, but here and 
tlieie as catch crops between other vegetables 
in the rows. 
Say our rows are three feet apart. We can 
now set out the Jerusalem artichokes, 18 to 24 
inches apart and five inches deep, at the far¬ 
away end of the patch, aud where they will 
not shade anything else. Plant horse radish 
about the same distance apart, using pieces of 
i young roots six to nine inches long as sets. Of 
beets sow a couple of drills about four inches 
apaitin the same row; but do not put in a 
laige sowing, as at this season they soon get 
tough, bow again in two or three weeks. If 
> ou like Windsor beans, sow at once and in 
good gxound; a few yards of row will be 
enough. Sow Early Horn and Stump-rooted 
carrots, as recommended for beets; but do 
not so soon put in a main crop. Some people 
like leeks for soup. Sow a little, say a piece 
of a row two yards long and lift and 
tiansplaut them early in June. I sow onions 
just as soon as the ground is ready: they need 
all the time they can get before hot weather 
ets in, and I also plant my onion sets, like¬ 
wise potato onions, as soon as the ground is 
workable. Where small onions are wanted 
for cooking whole in soup, shallots are pre¬ 
fer! ed; a pint of sets will be enough. Al¬ 
though I always grow a few top onions for va¬ 
riety’s sake, I must say, as compared with 
other onions, 1 don’t think they are worth 
bothering about. Parsley always does best 
when sown early. But don't sow it out in 
the lot. Sow a bit of a row as a border some¬ 
where handy near the house. We may also 
sow our parsnips at once, but for winter use 
and where tenderness and flue quality are the 
object in view I would disadvise sowing till 
May. Round Yellow peas as Daniel O’Rourke 
should be sown at once, and Alpha peas a 
week later. Other marrow peas 10 to 14 days 
later. Our early lettuces we usually sow in 
a hot-bed and then transplant among other 
crops, say between the plants of cabbages or 
cauliflowers. Later crops are sown in rows, 
a little at a time, and again transplanted in the 
same way among almost any sort of crops; 
for instance, between tomatoes, cucumbers’ 
melons, corn, and the like. You can raise 
rhubarb from seed, and get pretty good using 
stalks for next year’s use. Or lift the old 
stools now and divide them into as many 
pieces as you can secure good eye-crowns to 
and transplant these at once. But as three 
feet apart is too close for rhubarb, omit plant¬ 
ing the row on either side of the rhubarb 
row. 1 treat salsify and scorzonera in the 
same way as I do parsnips. Sow a double 
drill of spinach as you would of beets, on¬ 
ly not so much at a time, aud sow oftener 
as it runs to seed so very soon. Or if ground 
is scarce, just drop a few seeds between the 
cabbage or other crops. Strapleaf or Purple- 
top White Globe turnips are capital for early 
work, but make only a small sowing as they 
soon get soggy in the heart. The little worms 
are very destructive to my early turnip crop; 
indeed, between these and cut-worms it is 
hard to get satisfactory results with early 
root crops. 
But the most important of all our spring 
crops is asparagus. Every farmer should 
have lots of it. Once planted, the plantation 
is good for 20 years, and it comes in at that 
time—end of April—when we have very little 
if any other green vegetable, aud lasts in good 
using condition till the end of June by which 
time we have abundance of peas, beans, cab¬ 
bage and other green vegetables. If you 
haven’t enough, plant some more. Anyhow 
sow some seed at once in a row either for a 
new plantation or to make up gaps in the old 
one. I wouldn’t advise sowing in the row so 
as to leave the seedlings there for a perma¬ 
nent plantation, because in this case the 
crowns are too near the surface to admit of 
the land being cultivated over them. By 
planting the roots five inches uuder the level 
of the ground, we can plow and harrow over 
the crowns without hurting them aud cut just 
as good green “grass” as we can from plants 
whose crowns are on the level of the surface 
