; in the winter,
seventy-five cents. I hire men for help and pay one dollar per day and
board.

* * * * *

H. C. COOPER, Morganville, Clay county: I have been in Kansas
twenty-eight years; have 300 apple trees, planted fifteen and nineteen
years. The best for commercial purposes are Winesap, Missouri Pippin,
Ben Davis, and Rome Beauty; for family use, Red Astrachan, Early
Harvest, Grimes's Golden Pippin and Winesap. I have tried and discarded
Willow Twig; it rots on the tree, and, by the time it gets to bearing,
dies. The Snow rots on the south side and dies. The Keswick Codlin is a
good bearer but too short-lived. I prefer side-hill, sloping to the
north, soil a black loam, without hard-pan or joint clay. I prefer trees
two years old, limbs two feet from the ground and not too heavy top, set
thirty-five feet apart, at the junction of furrows run out both ways
with a lister. I grow nothing in an orchard. Do not cultivate. I simply
keep down the weeds, and let the tree take care of itself. I don't think
the roots should be troubled in Kansas. I believe windbreaks are
essential; and would put them of box-elder on the north and west of the
orchard. For protection against rabbits, when you first set your tree
take a good handful of slough-grass long enough to reach to the first
limb, tie at the top, in the middle, and bottom, and leave it on till it
rots off; neither rabbits, borers nor sun-scald will trouble a tree thus
covered. Cut out watersprouts; but never cut off a limb without good
reason. Put stable litter around your trees in a circle for the first
three years. Never pasture the orchard. Am troubled with some insects,
and have never sprayed but four trees as an experiment; the apples did
not rot or fall off. We pick by hand from a ladder, and sort and place
in piles in the cellar, each kind by itself. I market my best apples at
home, selling some in the orchard; the culls I make into vinegar. I
store some for winter in bulk in a cellar cave, and find that the
Winesap and Missouri Pippin keep the best. I pay fifty cents per day for
help.

* * * * *

J. B. WILCOX, Muscotah, Atchison county: Have lived in Kansas
thirty-five years; have 4000 trees seventeen years planted. Prefer
Winesap, Missouri Pippin and Ben Davis for market, and would add
Grimes's Golden Pippin, and Jonathan for family orchard. Have tried and
discarded many varieties. I prefer a bla