rost. For rabbits I wrap my trees with corn-stalks, which I
think the best way. I prune with an ax, knife, and saw, and think it
beneficial and that it pays. I do not thin the fruit while on the trees.
My trees are in mixed plantings. I fertilize my orchard with well-rotted
cow-stable litter, which I think has been beneficial. I do not pasture
my orchard; I do not think it advisable. My trees are troubled with
canker-worm, but not bad, and my apples with codling-moth. I spray after
the blossoms fall, with London purple (which will kill every time), for
canker-worm. I stand on step-ladder and pick my apples by hand. I sell
them in the orchard, at retail, and feed the culls to the chickens.
Lincoln is my best market. Have never tried distant markets. Don't dry
any; it does not pay. I am successful in storing apples in bulk in a
cellar, and find Winesap and Missouri Pippin keep best. I do not
irrigate. Prices have been from ten cents to two dollars per bushel, the
same season; dried apples four cents per pound.

* * * * *

J. H. SAYLES & SON, Norcatur, Decatur county: Have been in Kansas
fifteen years; have 300 apple trees, eight years planted, six inches in
diameter. For market I planted Ben Davis, Winesap, Missouri Pippin,
Winter Duchess (?), and I added for family use Jonathan, Duchess of
Oldenburg, and Red June. I have tried and discarded the Mann, Walbridge,
Baldwin, Northern Spy, and Red Astrachan. I have black, northwest Kansas
prairie soil, with northeast slope. Our well is seventeen feet deep, and
fruit never fails. Plant low, healthy, two-year-old trees, in deep
furrows, plowed parallel with the slope, putting the trees twenty by
thirty feet. I have raised some splendid seedlings. I draw on large
quantities of stable litter. I grow nothing in the orchard; cultivate
with double shovel, drag, and hoe, keeping the ground flat. I believe
windbreaks are essential, and would make them of Russian mulberry and
white elm, set one row of elm one year old, twelve to twenty-four
inches, then two rows of Russian mulberry six feet apart, alternating.
For rabbits I fence with wire. I prune with knife and saw, thinning out
the tops, and think it pays. I believe in thinning the fruit as soon as
it is large enough, and would plant mixed varieties. Our Jonathan never
bore until the Ben Davis near by bloomed. I scatter stable litter as for
grain, and it is beneficial, as trees not fertilized die out he