using a plow, harrow, and
cultivator; cease cropping at the end of this time and seed to clover.
Windbreaks are essential on the south; would make them of Osage orange
fifteen rods distant, to protect the orchard from the hard and hot south
winds. For rabbits I wrap the young trees with paper. I prune my trees
after they are eight years old, with the saw, to give light and thin the
top. I think it beneficial. I do not thin my apples; enough fall off. I
fertilize my orchard by mowing the clover, and think it beneficial to
young trees, and would advise the use of clover fertilization on all
soils. I do not pasture my orchard; is not advisable. My trees are
troubled with borers, and my apples with some insect that stings them
and causes them to fall off. I do not spray. I pick my apples by hand
with care. Sort into two classes, pack in barrels, in layers, by hand,
mark with variety, and haul to shipping place or market in lumber wagon.
I wholesale my best apples; make vinegar of the second and third grades
and culls. Topeka is my best market; never tried distant markets. I do
not dry any. I am successful in storing apples in barrels in a cellar; I
also bury some. I find Romanite keeps best. I have to repack stored
apples before marketing, losing about one-eighth of them. I do not
irrigate. Price has been fifty cents per bushel.

* * * * *

THOMAS BUCKMAN, Topeka, Shawnee county: I have lived in the state
twenty-nine years. Have an apple orchard of 1300 trees from six to
twenty-seven years old. For market I prefer Ben Davis and Jonathan; and
for family orchard Rare Ripe, Maiden's Blush, and Winesap. I prefer
black soil with a porous subsoil, and a northeast slope. I prefer
two-year-old, small-size trees, with good roots, set in holes dug with
spade in well-cultivated ground. I cultivate my orchard six years with a
five-tooth cultivator; plant corn in a young orchard, and cease cropping
when six years old, and sow clover in the bearing orchard. Windbreaks
are essential; would make them of Osage orange, by setting the plants
twelve inches apart. For the rabbits I use traps and wrap the young
trees with corn-stalks. I dig the borers out with a knife. I prune to
remove crossed limbs and to keep the tree well balanced; I think it
pays. I do not thin the fruit while on the trees. I do not fertilize my
orchard, but think it would be beneficial on all soils. I pasture my
orchard with hogs, but do no