orchard, and covers with coarse
hay. Sorts into two classes--sellers and cider apples. Uses barrels as a
package. Makes cider vinegar and hog feed of culls, and sells his good
apples in various ways; has sold in orchard. His best markets are the
surrounding towns and the neighboring farmers. Never dries any, and only
stores enough for winter use of family. Price in 1896 was seventy-five
cents for best, fifty cents for seconds. Hires no help.

* * * * *

ROBERT MONTGOMERY, Troy, Doniphan county: Came to Kansas in 1857; served
three years in the United States army, and have been here ever since. I
have 4000 apple trees that have been set from twenty to thirty years. My
market varieties are Ben Davis, Jonathan, and Missouri Pippin. For
family use I added Yellow Transparent, Red June, Chenango Strawberry,
White Winter Pearmain, Rawle's Janet, and Nelson's Sweet. I have
discarded the Baldwin, Spitzenberg, Northern Spy, Early Harvest, and
Early Pennock. Bottom land is not good; hills and hollows are best, with
north or east slope; what we call mulatto soil is best. I prefer thrifty
two- or three-year-old trees with low tops. Half of my trees are planted
thirty feet each way. I now plant in rows two rods apart north and south
and one rod apart in the row. I raise corn and potatoes among my trees
for five or seven years, cultivating with the plow and the hoe;
afterward I seed to clover; a disc can be used to good advantage every
year; I keep the orchard in clover. Windbreaks are beneficial on high
land, made of cottonwood, or better of cedar or Norway spruce, planted
on the south side when you plant the orchard. I protect from rabbits
with wooden protectors, leaving them on the year round. I cut the borers
out with a knife, also use a wire. I shape the head of young trees by
cutting out all the watersprouts with pruning shears and saw; old trees
must be pruned or the apples will be small.

Barn-yard litter is beneficial on thin land, not necessary on rich land,
but ashes are good on any soil. I pasture my orchard in summer with
young horses and hogs. I think it advisable, as the hogs eat the apples
that drop and destroy the worms. I have never sprayed. I pick in
half-bushel baskets, and sacks with an iron hoop in the mouth; pour them
in barrels and haul them to the barn, except those we wish to ship at
once, which we sort in the orchard. I make two classes--good, sound,
merchantable apples, and