refer a low bottom with a black loam, and a
north slope. I prefer two-year-old, well-balanced trees, set in holes
large enough to receive them, twenty-four by twenty-four feet. I
cultivate my young orchard to corn and potatoes, using a disc harrow,
and cease cropping when they begin to bear. I plant nothing in a bearing
orchard. Windbreaks would be beneficial on the south to protect the
orchard from the hot south winds. I would make it of walnut trees,
because they sap the ground the least. To protect them from the borers,
I leave the branches low down, and when we see any sawdust I dig him out
with a knife. I prune very little with knife and saw to balance the
trees. I do not thin the fruit on the trees. Some say if you expect to
get a load of apples from a tree you must give it a load of manure every
time it bears, and I think this is right, but don't put it too close to
the tree. I pasture my orchard with nothing but poultry; it is not
advisable; it makes the ground too hard. Codling-moth troubles my apples
very much. I do not spray. I sell apples in the orchard; peddle the best
ones; make cider and vinegar of the culls. Don't dry any for
market--just enough for family use. Prices have been from forty to
seventy-five cents per bushel.

* * * * *

A. M. ENGLE, Moonlight, Dickinson county: I have lived in Kansas
nineteen years. Have an orchard of 600 apple trees ten to eighteen years
old. For commercial orchard I prefer Ben Davis, Rawle's Janet, Missouri
Pippin, and Winesap. I prefer bottom or low land with a dark loam, and a
north or northeast aspect. I prefer stout, low-headed, two-year-old
trees, planted sixteen or eighteen feet east and west and thirty or
thirty-two feet north and south. I think an orchard ought to have as
much cultivation as a corn-field. I grow early corn in my young orchard,
using an Acme and cutaway harrow, and cultivate as for corn. I cease
cropping when fairly bearing. Plant nothing in a bearing orchard unless
for fertilizing, but keep cultivating. Windbreaks are essential; would
make them of evergreen, box-elder, Osage orange, maples, cottonwood,
etc. For rabbits I rub the trees with axle grease, or tar and fish oil,
or old lard, mixed; apply with a cloth. For borers I wash with lye or
strong soap-suds. I prune my trees severely when planting, and watch
them for several years, and cut out all branches that rub or crowd, and
cut out buds so that the tree will n