ot have too many limbs for
foundation; I think it pays. I thin the fruit while on the trees; begin
early when the trees are full, and continue all through the season,
whenever I see imperfect fruit; think it pays big. My trees are mixed
plantings. I fertilize my orchard with well-rotted stable litter and
wood ashes; I would especially advise the use of wood ashes. I pasture
my orchard very little; would put hogs in if the limbs were not too low
and full of apples; I think it would pay. My trees are troubled with
flathead borer and canker-worm, and my apples with codling-moth. I
intend spraying this year with Paris green and London purple for the
worms, and Bordeaux mixture for blight and fungous diseases, as soon as
the blossoms fall.

In picking I use foot ladders and one-half-bushel baskets, unless the
variety is very hard; then I use sacks. Sort into three classes. Pack in
barrels shaken and pressed down, then headed, and marked with name of
variety, and haul to shipping point on wagon. Sell some apples in the
orchard; let the grocer have the best to sell on commission; sell second
and third grades the best way I can; make cider of culls. My best market
is at Abilene; never tried distant markets. Dry only for home use. Am
successful in storing apples in barrels and tight boxes, in a cave; find
Winesap and Rawle's Janet keep well till June. Put my apples in the cave
when the weather is cold, and keep it open cold nights, but am careful
to not let it freeze. Think it best to repack stored apples when kept
late. If they are well managed you will not lose five per cent.,
probably not two per cent. Do not irrigate, but would if I had water
facilities. Prices last fall were from forty to fifty cents per bushel
in the orchard, but the apples I kept over netted me $1.25 to $1.35 per
bushel. I employ men and women; think women best and cheapest for
sorting. Pay fifty, sixty and seventy-five cents per day.

I do not consider myself a successful horticulturist, but believe, if I
had known as much about the nature or necessity of the orchard when we
came to Kansas nineteen years ago as I do now, I could have made a
success of it, even here in central Kansas. I would especially say that
I do not believe there can be success with an orchard exposed on upland.
There might possibly be some success as a family orchard, with a good
windbreak planted around it, especially on the south side, but I would
not take ten, twenty or thirty a