clear of root aphis, set in a
dead furrow, with peach trees between north and south. I cultivate my
trees six years after planting, with a plow and five-tooth one-horse
cultivator. Plant the young orchard to corn; cease cropping after six or
seven years, and then seed down to clover. Windbreaks are essential;
would make them by planting one to six rows of Osage orange, red cedar
or catalpas all around the orchard. The boys hunt the rabbits with
shot-guns. I wash the trees with a carbolic-acid wash for borers. I
prune with a knife and saw to balance the top, keep down watersprouts,
and to get rid of useless wood. I think it pays and is beneficial, as it
shades the body of the tree and keeps off the flathead borers. I do not
thin the fruit. Can see no difference whether trees are in blocks of one
variety, or mixed plantings. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter
all over the ground, and wood ashes around the trees, but do not believe
it pays, and would not advise it on all soils; any soil that is suitable
for an orchard will not need enriching until after it ceases to be
profitable. I pasture my orchard with hogs and calves; I think it
advisable under certain conditions, and find it pays. My trees are
troubled with root aphis, roundhead borers and buffalo tree-crickets;
and my apples with codling-moth. I do not spray. I pick my apples by
hand, from a ladder, into a sack with a strap over the shoulder. I sell
the bulk of my apples in the orchard, from piles, at wholesale and
retail; sell the grocers and fruit dealers what are left of my best
apples. Make cider of the second and third grades of apples. Feed the
culls to the hogs. My best market is in Topeka. Never tried distant
markets. Do not dry any. I store some apples for winter in bulk, in
boxes and in barrels in a cellar. I have to repack stored apples before
marketing. Apples have been about forty cents a bushel in the orchard
for the last ten years.

* * * * *

E. HIGGINS, Seabrook, Shawnee county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-six
years; have an apple orchard of 250 trees twenty-five years old. For
market I prefer Winesap, Jonathan, Maiden's Blush, Smith's Cider, and
Ben Davis; for family orchard, Winesap, Jonathan, Maiden's Blush, Red
June, and Grimes's Golden Pippin. Have tried and discarded Kansas Keeper
on account of blight. I prefer hilltop; best below lime rock, with a
northeast slope. I prefer two-year-old, low-headed tre