my orchard with corn four or five
years, using a cultivator, and cease cropping after six or eight years;
Kafir-corn does well in a bearing orchard. For rabbits I think wire
screening is best. I prune my trees to let in air; think it beneficial,
and that it pays. Do not thin the fruit while on the trees. I fertilize
my orchard with stable litter; it strengthens and invigorates the trees;
would advise its use on all soils unless very rich. I pasture my orchard
with calves, because they do not hurt the trees; I think it advisable,
and that it pays. My trees are troubled with web-worm, and my apples
with curculio. I spray with London purple, one tablespoonful to two
gallons of water, to destroy the curculio. I think I have reduced the
codling-moth. For borers I use ashes; throw them around the tree, or
make a lye of them, and wash the tree and throw some around the roots. I
pick my apples from a ladder into baskets.

* * * * *

G. K. AYERS, Furley, Sedgwick county: I have lived in the state
twenty-seven years. Have an apple orchard of 300 trees, twenty-one years
planted, eight to fourteen inches in diameter. For commercial orchard I
prefer Ben Davis, Jonathan, Rome Beauty, and Winesap, and for family
orchard Sweet June, Duchess of Oldenburg, Maiden's Blush, Baldwin,
Grimes's Golden Pippin, Jonathan, Rome Beauty, and Winesap. Have tried
and discarded Red Astrachan and Rambo for unproductiveness; White Winter
Pearmain as unproductive, short-lived, and a poor seller. I prefer for
an apple orchard the best corn land, in a bottom. I prefer two-year-old
trees, with good roots not mangled, set in squares thirty feet each way.
I cultivate my orchard to corn or vines, using a plow, harrow and
cultivator eight or ten years in the orchard, and cease cropping after
ten years. I plant a bearing orchard to orchard-grass and timothy
(blue-grass is injurious). Windbreaks would be an advantage on the south
and west; would make them of live trees; plant Osage orange next to
orchard and forest-trees outside of it. For rabbits I wrap the young
trees; also shoot and trap them, especially the jacks.

I prune very cautiously, and mostly on the north side, using a saw and
knife, to give symmetry and keep limbs from crowding; I think it
beneficial. I fertilize portions of my orchard with stable litter; would
not advise it on all soils, as I think an orchard can be overstimulated.
I have pastured the orchard with c