keep the ground clean and loose. Windbreaks are
essential; would make them of cottonwood, box-elder, and Osage orange,
putting a belt of timber around the orchard. For rabbits I wrap with
corn-stalks in the fall. I prune with knife and shears to keep the tree
in shape; I think it pays. I never have thinned the fruit while on the
tree, but think it would pay on some varieties. I fertilize my orchard
with stable litter while I am cropping the ground; but would not advise
its use unless you have plenty of water. I do not pasture my orchard; it
is not advisable, and does not pay. My trees are troubled with
twig-borer, canker-worm, and leaf-roller, and my fruit with
codling-moth. I spray when the bloom falls, and ten days later, with
London purple, for codling-moth; and I think I have reduced them. Borers
do not trouble my trees when they have plenty of water. I hand-pick my
apples; sort into three classes--first, second, and refuse. I sell some
apples in the orchard, but retail most of them to the stores; make cider
of the third grade and culls. My best market is at home. I do not dry
any. I am successful in storing apples in bulk in a cellar; find the
Missouri Pippin, Winesap and Arkansas Black keep best. I irrigate
thoroughly in the winter, early spring, and again before the fruit
begins to ripen. Prices have been from fifty cents to one dollar per
bushel.

* * * * *

Dr. G. BOHRER, Chase, Rice county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-five
years. Have an apple orchard of 700 trees from nineteen to twenty-two
years old. For commercial orchard I prefer Ben Davis, and for family use
I add Smith's Cider, Wagener, and White Pippin. Have tried and discarded
Missouri Pippin and Winesap; they require more moisture than the others
mentioned above. I prefer a bottom, with black loam and a porous
subsoil; an eastern slope. I prefer well-grown one-year-old trees, set
thirty-four feet east and west, and twenty feet north and south. I plant
my orchard to corn for ten years, using a plow and harrow; think a disc
would be as good. I cease cropping after ten years, and plant nothing in
a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential on the south and west sides
of the orchard, and I would make them of Osage orange or box-elder,
planted ten feet apart. For rabbits I wrap the trees with slough grass
until six years old. I prune lightly, taking out the limbs which rub
each other and balancing the trees. I think it pa