g. I store
successfully for winter in bulk and in barrels in a cave with
eighteen-inch wall arched over from the bottom. I find that Ben Davis,
Missouri Pippin and Winesap keep the best. We lose, perhaps,
one-sixteenth. I do not irrigate. Prices range from 50 cents to $1.50
per bushel, and dried apples from five to twelve cents per pound. I use
only farm hands at fifteen dollars per month and board.

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AMOS JOHNSON, Ellinwood, Barton county: Have been in Kansas twenty-three
years; have an orchard of 2000 apple trees, planted from three to twelve
years. Varieties for market: Winesap, Missouri Pippin, Smith's Cider,
and Northern Spy; for family use, Winesap, Missouri Pippin, Smith's
Cider, Maiden's Blush, and Red June. Have no use whatever for Ben Davis.
Prefer bottom land, with black, sandy soil and a southern aspect. Plant
good, thrifty two-year-old trees 25x25 feet. I plant corn or potatoes
for three or four years, and after that nothing; thoroughly cultivate
with the plow, disc, and harrow. I think a windbreak on the south side
very essential, and would make it of cottonwood and Russian mulberry, in
five rows, alternating, six feet apart. I use soap and turpentine for
the borers, and hounds for the rabbits. I believe pruning pays, and
makes the fruit much nicer. I use common pruning shears, and prune so
that the sun can get in. Never have thinned apples on the trees, but
believe it would be a good thing. I believe in fertilizing with stable
litter; think it keeps the orchard thrifty and more fruitful. I have
never kept any stock in the orchard, but believe it would be advisable
and no detriment to pasture with hogs in June and July. Have never
sprayed any. I pick from step-ladders into baskets, and sort into three
classes: No. 1 are sold in barrels, No. 2 in bulk, and No. 3 go for
cider. I have sold a few wagon-loads in the orchard, but I sell my best
apples by the bushel late in winter; I usually sell the second-grade
apples first, and make the culls into cider. My best market is in the
counties north and west of us; have never tried a distant market. Never
dried any. For winter we store in barrels, and are successful. The
Missouri Pippin and Willow Twig keep best. I irrigate on a small scale.
Prices average about one dollar per bushel.

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S. S. DICKINSON, Larned, Pawnee county: Has lived in Kansas thirty-three
years, and has an apple