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WM. SNYDER, Towanda, Butler county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-seven
years; have an orchard of 1200 trees--200 twenty-six years old, diameter
twelve to fifteen inches, thirty feet high; 700 twelve years old, eight
to ten inches in diameter at base, twelve to fifteen feet high; 300
eight years old, five to six inches in diameter at the ground, eight to
ten feet high. For all purposes I prefer Summer Rose, Early Harvest,
Duchess of Oldenburg, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Jonathan, Missouri Pippin,
Winesap, and Ben Davis. Bottom land is best for Ben Davis and Winesap;
other varieties named will do better on high ground. Northeast slope is
preferable; black loam with clay subsoil. I plant healthy three-year-old
trees, branching three feet from ground, in deep furrows, crossmarked
with plow; stand trees erect, and tramp earth firmly about the roots. I
cultivate my orchard five years with plow and cultivator, and grow corn
in young orchard. I cease after five years, and grow nothing in bearing
orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of peach, Russian
mulberry, or cedar, by planting several rows on south of orchard. For
rabbits, fence with two-foot poultry netting; for borers, whitewash and
cultivate. I prune just a little with saw or shears to remove
interlocking branches only; it pays. Never have thinned my fruit;
believe it does not pay. Can distinguish no difference whether trees are
in blocks of one kind or mixed plantings. I do not fertilize my orchard.
Stable litter would, I think, benefit thin soil. I do not pasture my
orchard; it is not advisable, and does not pay.

My apple trees are troubled with canker-worm, root aphis, and fall
web-worm. Have sprayed for fifteen years, for canker-worm and
codling-moth. Have used London purple and arsenate of lime. I spray for
canker-worm as soon as they hatch and the buds begin to open, and again
before bloom opens; for codling-moth, at time the bloom drops. I have
reduced the codling-moth very much. I pick my apples by hand, from a
ladder, into baskets, and sort into two classes usually; first class,
for market, picked by hand; second class, for cider, shaken off. Have
never used packages of any kind. Usually deliver in wagon. I sell apples
in the orchard, wholesale and retail. Sell best to my neighbors, in
orchard. Second and third grades I sell cheap and convert into cider and
vinegar. The culls I feed to cattle and hogs. My best market is in the
orchard a