may be in with a knife.
I prune with a knife, saw, and ax, and believe it pays. I use stable
litter in my orchard. Tried pasturing my orchard once with hogs, but do
not think it advisable. Have some borers, tent-caterpillars, and
codling-moth, but have never sprayed any. Pick in baskets, buckets, and
sacks, and sort into two classes--first, to sell or put away; second,
culls. Prefer large boxes, with the fruit laid in carefully, each kind
by itself. I wholesale as many as possible, sell some in the orchard,
and make cider of culls. My best market is at home. Have never tried
drying. Keep them successfully over winter in bulk in the cellar for
family use; Winesap keeps best. Prices have run from twenty-five cents
to one dollar per bushel.

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S. B. BROWN, Waverly, Coffey county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-six
years. Have 1100 apple trees from three to twenty-five years old. My
market varieties are Winesap and Missouri Pippin; for family orchard I
add Yellow Transparent and Grimes's Golden Pippin. My location is
hilltop, with a northern slope. I plant two-year-old trees by running a
furrow with a plow and opening holes with a shovel. I cultivate with a
plow and cultivator from ten to twelve years, growing corn for ten
years; after that, nothing. I believe windbreaks are essential, and
would make them of Osage orange or maples, on the east, north, and
northwest. For rabbits I wrap the trees; for borers I wash with soft
soap. I prune to make the apples larger. I use stable litter between the
rows. I do not think it advisable to pasture the orchard. I do not
spray, and am troubled with canker-worm, flat-headed borer, and
curculio. We hand-pick into sacks, and sort into four grades--No. 1, No.
2, No. 3, and culls. I peddle my best apples; make culls into cider. My
best market is Waverly; never tried distant markets. I have dried apples
on the Zimmerman drier with satisfaction. I box the dried product and
find a ready market for it, and think it pays. I do not store any
apples. The prevailing price for apples is fifty cents per bushel, and
for dried apples twelve cents per pound. I use men for help, and pay one
dollar per day.

* * * * *

DICK MAY, Elk, Chase county: Have lived in Kansas since 1860. Have a
family apple orchard of sixty trees eighteen years old. I prefer Ben
Davis and Winesap, on bottom land with a second slope. I cultivate my
orchard