It is a mistake to think we
can find a winter apple adapted to Kansas that originated north of
Kansas, under a lower mean temperature. This we have fully demonstrated
beyond the possibility of a doubt.

Early apples require a specific amount of heat to bring them to maturity
from the time the fruit forms. If brought from a colder climate to a
warmer one, you hasten its growth and accelerate its maturity just in
proportion to the difference in mean temperature of the two localities,
and consequently it ripens in the fall here. I prefer hilltop for
quality, keeping, and color, and bottom for size. Hilltop and steep
bluffs are the best for all kinds of winter apples, as they produce the
richest fruit, with the finest color, and they keep the best and are not
so subject to injurious pests. Fifty feet of abrupt elevation is equal
in its effect to fifty miles of latitude south on frosty nights. It
retards spring growth as much as forty miles north. An elevation of 400
feet makes a difference of from ten to twenty-five per cent. in the
amount of saccharine matter in fruit, to which rich quality, fine flavor
and aroma are due. Bottom land produces the largest apples, more murky
in color and more irregular in bearing. Rolling, intermediate Kansas
land will prove satisfactory. East and south slopes hasten the maturity
of fruit, and are the best for early varieties; a northern slope retards
the ripening of fruit and is the best for winter apples. The best
specimens of apples we ever saw in Kansas grew on a northern bench about
thirty feet below the top of an elevation of 400 feet, on good, rich,
well-drained soil. They were large in size, clear in color, and perfect
in form. We prefer any good soil that will produce a good corn crop,
with a well-drained clay subsoil; mucky, wet or hard-pan soils are not
fit for fruit. Land that produces a good crop of wheat is rich enough.
We have seen a very heavy crop of York Imperial at its native home on
quite thin freestone land. Almost any of the land in Leavenworth county
is naturally rich enough if we only keep it so.

I prefer two-year-old untrimmed trees, set in furrows made with a
two-horse plow, no deeper than we plant the trees, but wide enough to
take in the roots. We set them about two inches deeper than they stood
in the nursery, on the solid subsoil, and pack the dirt firmly amongst
the roots; lean or set the heaviest top to the southwest. The largest
and heaviest roots, if conv