. When I first came to this state thirty years ago, I consulted
Col. A. S. Johnson, now of Topeka. From him I obtained a great deal of
valuable information, he having had thirty-six years of Kansas
experience. I should, no doubt, have planted many that I did not, owing
to the information obtained of him; so it may be seen that, by proper
care, experience, and observation, we may be of benefit to the rising
generation. Having selected your varieties by consulting the published
fruit list of the Kansas State Horticultural Society, next select your
location. Select, if you can, the highest northern slope; next east,
next west. Put your ground in good order by plowing and subsoiling at
least fifteen inches deep. Should there be any tenacious soil or spouty
places, tile with four-inch tile, forty feet apart, three feet deep. A
great mistake is made by many in planting too closely. I have trees
twenty-eight years old, forty feet from tip to tip. Plant to some
cultivated crop for six years, then seed to clover; trim your trees each
February; keep the borers out, and if they do get into your trees hunt
them out; spray your trees frequently at the proper time to prevent the
noxious insects from getting the start of you, and when your trees
commence to bear commence to fertilize by turning under clover and
stable litter. Horace Greeley once said: "You might as well expect milk
from a cow tied to a stake as apples from an orchard uncared for."

* * * * *

A. MUNGER, Hollis, Cloud county: I have lived in Kansas fifteen years;
have an apple orchard of seventy-five trees twelve inches in diameter,
eighteen feet high, seventeen years old. I prefer for market Ben Davis,
Missouri Pippin, and, to a limited extent, Yellow Transparent and
Grimes's Golden Pippin, and for a family orchard add Early Harvest and
Maiden's Blush. Have tried and discarded the Willow Twig on account of
blight and rot. I prefer bottom land, with a loose subsoil, and young
and stocky trees. I plant my orchard to potatoes, beans and vines for
ten years, and use a cultivator that keeps three inches very mellow, and
cease cropping when impossible to cultivate. I grow weeds in the orchard
and mow them. Windbreaks are not essential, but are very desirable;
would make them of Osage orange, Russian mulberries, or box-elder. Set
the first row four feet apart, the second six inches, and never trim;
the third six feet. For rabbits I use traps an