s keep
best. Sold last fall (1897) at 75 cents per bushel; during winter, at $1
to $1.25. Uses ordinary farm help at twenty dollars per month and board.

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A. S. HUFF, Sharon, Barber county: Have lived in Kansas twenty-eight
years; have an apple orchard of 130 trees ten years old. For commercial
purposes I prefer Ben Davis, Large Romanite, and Missouri Pippin, and
for family orchard Missouri Pippin, Little Romanite, Limber Twig, and
Winesap. I prefer level land with sand as deep as I can get it, with
[natural] subirrigation. I use strong, thrifty trees, set in furrows
plowed as deeply as possible, and then dug out. I cultivate my young
orchard to corn with one-horse, five-tooth cultivator, as long as I can
get in the orchard, and cease cropping only when they commence bearing,
and plant nothing after that. Windbreaks are essential, and I would make
them of Russian mulberry or box-elder, set six feet apart in rows
running east and west, on the north and south sides. I protect from
rabbits by wrapping with corn-stalks, and use lye for borers. I prune
very little with a saw to keep out watersprouts, hardly enough to pay
here in Kansas. Do not thin the fruit on my trees; it thins itself. I do
not need to fertilize; would advise it on clay soil. I never pasture my
orchard; do not think it advisable, unless you wish to destroy your
trees. My trees are troubled with flathead borer, and my apples with
curculio. Never have sprayed; insects not affected by spraying I gouge
out with a wire, and apply concentrated lye in April and August. I pick
my apples from ladders set up around the trees, one with four legs made
solid, with steps on one side and a broad board on top to set baskets
on. I sort into four classes, keeping those of a uniform size separate
from the small ones. I keep my apples in an apple house. I generally
sell in the orchard; always get $1.50 for my best, packed in boxes and
sold at the nearest towns, at retail. I make cider for vinegar of the
culls. My best market is at home; never tried distant markets. Never dry
any; it does not pay. I store all I do not sell in orchard, in a cellar
12x16 feet, six feet in the ground, with earth on top; they do not
freeze. I find the Winesap, Limber Twig and Little Romanite keep best.
We do not have to repack stored apples before marketing; only lose about
one per cent. I do not irrigate. Prices have been $1.25 per bushel. I
hire no help;