the pole I sew a long sack [a canvas tube]; the apples fall in this sack
and roll down to me. I pack in barrels; sell in orchard; use the waste
apples at home. Have tried distant markets; it did not pay. Do not dry
any. I store apples for winter in barrels, and find White Winter
Pearmain keeps best. I have to repack stored apples before marketing;
the loss depends a great deal on the season. I do not irrigate. Prices
have been from thirty cents to one dollar per bushel. Home-dried apples,
four and one-half cents per pound.

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DAVID LEHMAN, Halstead, Harvey county: I have resided in Kansas nineteen
years; have an orchard of 180 apple trees sixteen years old, eight to
twelve inches in diameter. For market I prefer Winesap, Missouri Pippin,
Ben Davis, and Jonathan, and for family orchard would add Maiden's
Blush. I prefer hilltop with a black loam and an east slope. I prefer
one- or two-year-old trees, two feet tall, with good roots, set thirty
feet apart in rows. I cultivate my orchard to corn for ten years, using
a harrow and five-tooth cultivator very shallow. Cease cropping after
ten years, and plant turnips in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are
essential; would make them of red cedar, ash, or catalpa, by planting
eight by eight feet in rows. I prune my trees when young with a
pruning-knife to get rid of all unnecessary limbs; I think it pays. I
fertilize my orchard with stable litter that will not heat, and would
advise its use on all soils, but lightly on rich soils. I pasture my
orchard with hogs, but do not think it advisable; it does not pay. My
trees are troubled with borers, and my apples with curculio. For insects
not affected by spraying, I use one box of concentrated lye and four
ounces of tincture of tobacco to four gallons of water; wash well with a
swab three times a year--the 15th of June, July, and August.

* * * * *

W. W. GARDNER, Chanute, Neosho county: Has lived in Kansas thirteen
years. Has 1000 well-grown trees, set seven years. Prefers for commerce
Ben Davis, Winesap, Missouri Pippin, and Huntsman's Favorite, and for
family orchard adds Maiden's Blush and Rome Beauty. Prefers north slope,
upland. Plants two-year-olds, with straight centers, at sixteen to
eighteen feet apart, in rows twenty-two to twenty-four feet apart.
Cultivates with two-horse cultivator, often enough to keep the weeds
down; then harrows, aiming to keep t