they grow in the nursery. I
cultivate my orchard from three to eight years, in potatoes, with a plow
and harrow; I plant nothing in a bearing orchard, and cease cropping
when they shade the ground. Windbreaks are essential where orchards are
exposed. I would make them of forest-trees. I protect from rabbits by
wrapping with poultry wire. I dig borers out. I prune very little, just
enough to stop top growth; I think it has been beneficial. I thin my
apples when the limbs are unable to support them. I mulch only to hold
back the bloom. I do not pasture my orchard. Borers trouble my trees. My
apples are not troubled with insects. I pick my apples by hand, and put
them carefully into a basket. I sort into two classes: first, sound and
smooth; second, unsound. I do this work by hand. I pack in barrels,
pressed full. My best market is at home; we eat and cook the best, and
the culls I donate to the children. I never dry any. I store some in
barrels, and am successful. I find those I keep from the family keep
best. [?] The prevailing price has been one dollar per bushel. I employ
men by the month.

* * * * *

FRED MOORE, Great Bend, Barton county: I have lived in Kansas twelve
years. Have 200 apple trees from one to sixteen years old. For family
orchard I prefer Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and Maiden's Blush. I prefer
bottom land, with north slope. I cultivate every year with stirring plow
and harrow; plant nothing; think windbreaks essential, made of
forest-trees. I wrap my trees with rags to protect from rabbits. I prune
with a saw to thin the branches. I never thin apples. I fertilize with
stable litter. My trees are troubled with flathead borers. Worms trouble
my apples. I do not spray. I dig borers out with a knife, in August and
September. Price has been fifty cents per bushel.

* * * * *

W. G. OSBORNE, Medicine Lodge, Barber county: Have lived in Kansas since
1865. Have 150 apple trees, from two to fourteen years planted. I prefer
root grafts, and plant in rows twenty to twenty-five feet each way. I
cultivate in corn, using a plow. Keep rabbits down with hounds. I prune
with a knife. I fertilize with barn-yard litter. Do not spray or
irrigate.

* * * * *

JOSEPH LEWIS, Bluff City, Harper county: I have been in Kansas
twenty-two years; have an orchard of 1000 trees; the first were set in
1881. The varieties are Missouri Pip