oft-soap suds and crude carbolic
acid. I believe windbreaks are essential, and would make them of rapid,
dense-growing trees; I use Russian mulberry, planted in three rows,
twelve feet apart, mismatched. For rabbits I rub the trees with sulphur
and grease. If trees are washed with carbolic acid and soap-suds, no
borer will ever attack them. I trim very slightly to keep down
watersprouts; to trim as they do in the East does not pay here. I do not
thin, but believe fruit would sometimes be larger and better for it. I
believe in fertilizing, and prefer cow-yard litter, sheep litter, and
hay; on rich bottom land I would use hay mulching. Mulching should be
removed from around the trees for hoeing, and then replaced. I never
pasture an orchard.

Am troubled some with canker-worm, twig-borer, and codling-moth. I spray
three or four times in a season, from eight to ten days apart, according
to the weather, beginning as soon as the blossoms appear, with a large
force-pump, and a rod with double nozzle, for canker-worm, web-worm, and
codling-moth. I have lessened the codling-moth by using copper sulphate
solution very early [?]. For borers I use London purple, copper
sulphate, Bordeaux, and Paris green [?]. We pick by hand, and sort into
two classes: First, the finest fruit; third, the culls, and second,
betweens. Sell some in the orchard, from a bushel to wagon-loads. Sell
my best apples on orders from merchants and citizens. The second grade
same as the first, if desired. The culls I make into vinegar, which I
sell in the home market. Our best market is at home. I tried shipping,
but transportation charges were too high; have not tried drying. I store
for winter outdoors, covered with hay and dirt, so as not to freeze. The
Romanite keeps best. I make my piles of twenty bushels, and lose perhaps
one-twentieth. Do not irrigate. Prices of late: First class, fifty
cents; second class, thirty-five cents per bushel. I use young men and
boys at from fifty cents to one dollar per day and board. I have one of
the best small orchards in the state. Have been successful in planting
and growing trees.

* * * * *

R. E. LAWRENCE, Wichita, Sedgwick county: I have resided in the state
twenty-eight years; have an apple orchard of 300 trees from twenty to
twenty-four years old. For market I prefer Missouri Pippin and Ben
Davis, and for family orchard would add Winesap, Early June, and
Grimes's Golden Pippin. I