er. No slope has any advantage
over another. Cultivate with plow and harrow, growing corn as an orchard
crop for five years; then seed to clover and blue grass only. Do not
care for windbreaks. Where there are windbreaks apples on trees do not
get sufficient air. I protect from rabbits by tying corn-stalks about
young trees. Prune some. I believe all apple blossoms are
self-pollinating, and there is no advantage in mixed plantings. Need no
fertilizers but clover in my locality. Believe it pays to pasture the
orchard with horses in the winter; if you have a stack of hay for them
to go to they will not harm the trees. Am troubled with codling-moth and
apple curculio. Spray for codling-moth ten days after the apple is
formed, and believe I have reduced their number. I use the knife for
borers. Pick in baskets; deliver to packers in orchard. The aphis
appears to do no particular injury to tree or fruit. Burn fall web-worm
with a coal-oil torch. Sort into number one, fancy, number two, fair but
defective in shape, color, or otherwise, and culls. Pack in three-bushel
barrels, pressed so they will not shake. Sell firsts in orchard; sell
seconds in car lots in bulk; sell culls in bulk for cider or vinegar. My
best market is in the orchard. Have tried consigning to distant markets,
but it did not pay. Have stored second grades for winter in boxes and
barrels and in bulk, and made it pay. Ben Davis, Winesap and Rawle's
Janet kept best. We sort and lose about one-fifth of the second grade
only. Prices have run from $1 to $1.50 per barrel, of late years, in the
orchard. For help in care of orchard I use men. In picking season I use
all kinds of help. No experts. Pay from $1 to $1.50 per day.

* * * * *

J. H. ROACH, Lowemont, Leavenworth county: Have been in Kansas forty-two
years. Have an apple orchard of 5500 trees; 800 planted thirty years,
1200 planted thirteen years, and 3500 planted three years. For
commercial purposes I prefer Jonathan, Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin,
Winesap, and Willow Twig. For family use I prefer Jonathan, Huntsman's
Favorite, and Winesap. I have discarded Yellow Bellflower, Rawle's
Janet, and Russets. I prefer black loam with red gravel subsoil, hilltop
with extreme north slope, no matter how steep. I plant thrifty
two-year-old trees, thirty-three feet apart each way, except Missouri
Pippin, which may be closer. Cultivate up to twelve years of age; grow
corn until seven, then