have an apple orchard of 300 trees, from one to
fifteen years old; the old ones measuring twelve inches in diameter. For
commercial purposes I prefer Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and
Huntsman's Favorite; and for family orchard Maiden's Blush, Ben Davis,
and Missouri Pippin. Think I shall discard Red Astrachan and Red
Betigheimer on account of shy bearing. I prefer bottom, sandy soil, clay
subsoil, and a northwest slope. I prefer good, stocky, low-headed,
yearling trees set from twenty-five to thirty feet in the row; have
tried root grafts; that is the only successful way to grow trees here. I
cultivate my orchard to potatoes for the first two or three years, after
that to any kind of vines. I use a stirring plow, plowing very shallow
near the trees and deeper near the center. I grow nothing in a bearing
orchard, and cease cropping after five years. I think windbreaks are
essential, and would make them of seedling peach, Russian mulberry or
any quick-growing trees, in three or four rows on the south side of the
orchard. I trap the rabbits, and use my knife on the borers; am not
troubled with them very much. I prune trees while young to give the
proper shape to the top, and later to remove the crossed limbs and cause
them to spread out and shade the trunk and as much space as possible. I
have thinned the fruit on trees to a limited extent; it should be done
when about the size of quail eggs. Think it makes little difference
whether trees are planted in block or mixed up.

I do not fertilize my orchard; the soil is rich enough; water is what it
needs. I pasture my orchard with hogs, and think it advisable, as they
eat all the wormy fruit and destroy many insects by rooting; I find it
pays. My trees are troubled with root aphis; my apples are bothered by
codling-moth, gouger, and blue jays. I spray with London purple and
lime, about 100 gallons of water to one pound of purple and six pounds
of lime. I think Paris green would be better. I spray for canker-worm as
soon as I see them, and am of the opinion that one application is
enough, but do not think spraying of any use for codling-moth, as the
moth itself does not eat anything but the honey from the base of the
bloom, and not enough of the poison reaches them to amount to anything.
My method of fighting them is, as soon as the moth appears in the
spring, to put old fruit cans in the trees filled with sweet water. This
attracts the moths and they drown in it. I als