m and clay subsoil. I prefer two-year-old trees, with
heads twenty inches from the ground, set in the spring, about two rods
apart. I cultivate all the time, even in bearing orchards, using an Acme
harrow, planting corn; cease cropping after four years; put nothing in a
bearing orchard. Windbreaks are not essential if the orchard is large.
For rabbits I wrap the trees. I dig borers out with a knife. I prune my
trees, and think it pays. I do not thin the fruit while on the trees. My
trees are planted in blocks--800 Ben Davis in one and 700 Missouri
Pippins in another; all bear well. I fertilize my orchard some, but not
much. I think it would be beneficial on poor soil, but would not advise
it on all soils. I pasture my orchard with horses after the fruit is
gathered; can't see any harm. My trees are troubled with canker-worm and
root aphis, and my apples with codling-moth. I spray as soon as the
bloom falls, and two or three times afterward, with arsenic, for
insects. Think I have reduced the codling-moth. I wash young trees twice
during the summer season with diluted soft soap for borers. Pick my
apples by hand, and sort into two classes. I pack in the standard apple
barrel, fill with a head press, mark with variety and grade, and haul to
depot on wagon. I sometimes sell apples in the orchard by the
wagon-load. I ship my best apples, and sell the culls for what I can
get. My best market is west. Have tried distant markets and found it
paid. I do not dry any. I am successful in storing apples in barrels;
Ben Davis and Missouri Pippin keep best. I do not irrigate. Prices last
fall were two dollars per barrel or fifty cents per bushel to wagoners.
I employ men at one dollar per day and board.

* * * * *

A. CHANDLER, Argentine, Wyandotte county. Have lived in the state
twenty-two years; have an apple orchard of 400 trees from one to nine
years old. For market I prefer Jonathan, Winesap, Missouri Pippin, Ben
Davis, and York Imperial; and for family orchard Huntsman's Favorite,
Maiden's Blush, and Jonathan. Have tried and discarded Grimes's Golden
Pippin and Smith's Cider on account of blight. I prefer hilltop, with a
clay soil and a light subsoil, and an east slope, as it will get the
morning sun and no southwest winds. I prefer two-year-old trees five to
six feet high, well branched, set twenty-eight by thirty feet; I also
have some twenty by thirty feet. I plant my orchard to corn, potatoes,