r the fruit is gathered, with horses.
I cannot see any injury. I never let horned cattle in.

My trees are troubled with root aphis and roundhead borers. I do not
spray. I find that all apples must be gathered before they are quite
ripe if we want them to keep well. In order to have them in the best
condition for keeping they must be picked without bruises; I hand-pick
mine in a sack over the shoulder. They must be kept perfectly cool and
at an even temperature. This of course can be done by placing them in
cold storage. I sort from a table in the orchard into two classes, large
and medium. Pack in barrels, mark with grade, and haul to market. I sell
apples in the orchard, generally wholesale them; sell the best to
shippers. Sell the culls for cider. My best markets are west and north.
I have tried distant markets, through agents, and found it paid. I do
not dry any apples, but sell many low-grade apples to the evaporating
factory. Do not store any; sell in the fall to shippers. Do not
irrigate. Prices have been from one dollar per barrel up. Dried apples
from four to six cents per pound. I employ young men at one dollar per
day. The profits from a good apple orchard are more than those from any
other crop which requires no more labor and expense. The profits from
one good crop of apples are more than from three crops of wheat or corn;
but apple-growing, as well as the growing of all other kinds of fruit,
requires constant, patient labor and attention, in order to be
successful, and even then the money will not come in with a great rush.
In conclusion, I would say, that the business of growing fruit is much
more certain of success than that of mercantile business. It has been
ascertained from actual statistics that, of every 100 merchants, fifty
utterly fail in business, forty are only moderately successful, and of
the remaining ten only one will become rich.

* * * * *

W. J. GRIFFING, Manhattan, Kan.: Were that old fisherman, Izaak Walton,
alive to-day, and an enthusiastic fruit-grower of eastern Kansas, he
would probably express himself in the book he would write, "The Complete
Horticulturist," that "doubtless God might have made a better apple
country than this, but doubtless He never did." If there is a strip of
land in the United States equal in size to the eastern third of Kansas
able to grow as many and as fine apples as this particular strip, it has
yet to be discovered. Our own