pick my apples from a ladder in a
basket. I sort into three classes--sound, medium, and small and unsound.
I pack in barrels carefully, and haul to shipping point in spring wagon.
I sell in orchard; also wholesale, retail, and peddle; market most of
them at home; make vinegar of the culls. My best market is home. Never
dry any. I store some for winter in barrels in cellar; am not always
successful; Ben Davis keeps best. I have to repack stored apples before
marketing, and lose about ten per cent. Do not irrigate. Prices have
been from twenty-five cents to one dollar per bushel. I employ men at
one dollar per day.
* * * * *
D. C. SEIBERT, Columbus, Cherokee county: Has been in Kansas twenty-two
years, and has an orchard from five to twenty years old. For commercial
purposes he prefers Ben Davis and Limber Twig, and for the family adds
Maiden's Blush. Prefers dark soil with a low southern slope, if not wet.
Prefers two-year-old trees set about thirty feet apart. Cultivates with
a disc harrow until four or five years old. Grows corn for five or six
years. Thinks windbreaks essential; would make them of Osage orange all
around the orchard. Prunes his trees, and thinks it beneficial, and that
it pays. Does not thin apples on the trees; says the wind does that for
him. Fertilizes his trees while young with stable litter, and would
advise it on all soils. Pastures his orchard with calves and hogs, and
thinks it advisable, and that with the hogs it pays. His trees are
troubled with bark-louse and leaf-roller, and his apples with
codling-moth. He sprays his trees with London purple, and thinks he has
reduced the codling-moth; for borers, and other insects not affected by
spraying, he throws salt over the roots of the trees. Picks his apples
by hand. Wholesales, retails and peddles them. His best markets are in
his county; has never tried distant markets. Does not dry any. Is
successful in storing apples in bulk in a cave for winter markets, the
Limber Twig and Rawle's Janet keeping best; has never tried artificial
cold storage. Does not irrigate. Prices have been from forty to
sixty-five cents per bushel.
* * * * *
JOHNSON KELLER, Arkansas City, Cowley county: Have lived in Kansas for
twenty-one years. Have 2000 apple trees fourteen years old. I grow for
market Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, and Smith's Cider. For family orchard
I prefer Early Harvest, Maiden's
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