ved in Kansas twenty-seven
years. Have 300 apple trees from one to twelve years old. For commercial
orchard I prefer Ben Davis, Willow Twig, Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and
Romanite; for family orchard, Maiden's Blush, Early Harvest, Yellow
Transparent, and Baldwin. I have tried and discarded Sweet Gennetting,
because of rot, and when ripe it is too small for market; Caswinculet,
because it sun-scalds and dries up, and Early White will not stand the
climate. I prefer bottom land, with sandy soil. I prefer two-year-old
trees, with low top, without forks, set four inches above the graft, at
an angle of thirty degrees south. Have grown some seedlings with good
success. I cultivate my orchard with potatoes and tobacco, using a plow
and cultivator, until four years old; I plant nothing in a bearing
orchard, and cease cropping when they commence to bear. Windbreaks are
essential here, and I would make them of Osage orange and forest-trees;
if Osage orange is used, plant it twenty feet from the orchard, or it
will injure the fruit-trees. I wrap my trees with corn-stalks or rags to
protect from rabbits, and wash the trees with lye water for borers; I
also dig them out. I have pruned with clippers, and found it injurious
to the trees; I only cut out watersprouts. I never thin my apples; they
thin themselves. My trees are in mixed plantings and bear well.

I fertilize my orchard with barn-yard litter; I also use fertilizer from
the chicken yard, and would advise its use on all soils. I never pasture
my orchard; it injures the trees, and does not pay. My trees are
troubled with canker-worm, tent-caterpillar, flathead borer, and
leaf-roller. Curculio trouble my apples. I do not spray, but my
neighbors do, and are not successful. I pick my apples by hand into
half-bushel baskets, and put them in a wagon, with hay in the bottom. I
sort into three or four classes, putting the red, yellow and green in
separate piles. I pack my apples in sacks, and haul to market in a
wagon. I often sell in the orchard; retail my best at stores, peddle the
second and third grades, and make cider for vinegar of the culls. My
best markets are Elmdale, Chase county, and Marion, Marion county; have
never tried distant markets. We dry a few apples; use a parer, corer,
and slicer; it is satisfactory; then pack them in flour sacks; but it
does not pay. I store some in boxes and barrels in a cave; am
successful; those that keep best are Romanite and Red Winter Pea