eck barrel.
I employ men at ten cents per hour.

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JAMES SHARP, Morris county: Have been in Kansas twenty-eight years. Have
an orchard in Morris county of 8000 trees, planted from two to thirteen
years. I grow for market Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Jonathan, and York
Imperial; would add for family Early Harvest, Maiden's Blush, and
Winesap. Have tried and discarded Yellow Bellflower, Lawver, Willow
Twig, and Smith's Cider; the former is barren, the others blight. I
prefer second bottom with northeast slope; soil loose, black loam, with
red clay subsoil. I plant in furrows each way, 16x30 feet, running a
subsoiler in the furrows, and use straight, smooth, two-year-old trees.
Have tried root grafts, but they need nursery care at first. I cultivate
at all ages, while young with plow, and old orchard with reversible
disc. I grow corn in young orchard, and after five or six years keep the
ground bare with the disc. I think windbreaks essential, and use Osage
orange, elm, ash, Austrian pine, and cedars. Catch the rabbits; and
cultivate well as a protection from borers. Do not prune much; take out
a little brush if necessary to more readily reach the fruit. Never have
thinned apples. Have never fertilized, and am decidedly opposed to
pasturing orchards with any kind of stock. Am troubled with canker-worm,
tent-caterpillar, flathead borer, woolly aphis, twig-borer, fall
web-worm, leaf-roller, leaf-crumbler, and codling-moth. Spray regularly
with London purple; cannot say it has reduced the codling-moth any; for
borers I keep my trees thrifty by constant cultivation. We pick in candy
pails, but find it bruises the fruit too much. I sort by hand in three
classes, commercial size Nos. 1 and 2, and culls. I pack in three-bushel
barrels, stenciled with name of variety and grower, and ship by freight.
Sell any way I can; have never sold in the orchard; sell culls for
apple-butter, and make some cider; have marketed at good prices at
Pueblo, Colo.; have never dried any for market. I store some for winter
in boxes, barrels and in bulk in a cellar, and find that Ben Davis and
Missouri Pippin keep best. I usually have to sort over those kept
through, and lose perhaps one-fifth. Have never irrigated. My average
returns are about fifty cents per bushel. For help I use men at one
dollar per day.

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JAMES WILSON, Assaria, Saline county: Lived in Kansas twenty