DISTRICT No. 1—APPLE TREES, 1897.

Bearing.Not bearing.Total.
Atchison county150,02470,691220,715
Brown county160,58357,488218,071
Clay county89,72526,087115,812
Cloud county68,83224,45193,283
Dickinson county110,35131,926142,277
Doniphan county156,661163,701320,362
Douglas county159,706120,375280,081
Franklin county126,90670,831197,737
Geary county39,14819,35758,505
Jackson county123,48584,533208,018
Jefferson county120,50986,837207,346
Johnson county88,39569,709158,104
Leavenworth county199,212216,015415,227
Marshall county157,27966,556223,835
Miami county101,54182,069183,610
Morris county93,18245,555138,737
Nemaha county140,27862,535202,813
Osage county246,26556,478302,743
Ottawa county40,53830,14960,687
Pottawatomie county117,23450,079167,313
Republic county128,07658,662186,738
Riley county103,05344,640147,693
Saline county74,64824,40099,048
Shawnee county207,779130,720338,499
Wabaunsee county108,94250,195159,137
Washington county152,76880,194232,962
Wyandotte county112,54179,903192,444
Total in district3,377,6611,894,1365,271,797
Acreage, about600,000300,000900,000

Fred Wellhouse & Son: Have been in Kansas since 1859, and grow no fruit but apples, having 117 acres in Leavenworth county, planted in 1876; 160 acres in Miami county, planted in 1878; 160 acres in Leavenworth county, planted in 1879; 800 acres in Osage county, planted in 1889, 1890, and 1891; 300 acres in Leavenworth county, planted in 1894; 140 acres in Leavenworth county, planted in 1896—total of about 100,000 trees, set out from two to twenty-two years. We prefer for commercial orchard, Jonathan, Missouri Pippin, Ben Davis, Winesap, and York Imperial, and for family orchard would add to these, Red June, Chenango, Maiden's Blush, Huntsman, and Rome Beauty. We tried sixteen acres of Cooper's Early White, but have discarded them as unprofitable, shy bearers. We consider upland the best if soil is of good quality. We have them on all slopes; can see no particular difference where soil is equal. We prefer rich, black soil (vegetable mold), clay subsoil. We plant in furrows, the rows thirty-two feet apart, the trees sixteen feet apart in the rows, running north and south.

The best trees to plant are two years old, the lowest limb or limbs not over two feet from the ground. We grow most of our trees from our own root grafts. Cultivation: We cultivate for the first five years, by throwing the soil first to and then from the trees, with a single or a double turning plow, and grow only corn. At five years from planting we sow the ground to clover, and this with other growths, such as weeds, is left on the ground as a mulch and fertilizer. We have never used any windbreaks at any of our orchards. Think they would be an advantage in some localities. We use traps for rabbits, knife and wire for borers. We prune very little, such as removing broken limbs. We have never fertilized any of our orchards. We do not believe it pays to pasture orchards, and do not allow it.

The insects that trouble us most are: Canker-worm, tent-caterpillar, fringed-wing bud moth, handmaid-moth or yellow-necked caterpillar, roundheaded borer and the tussock-moth caterpillar on our trees; and codling-moth, gouger and tree cricket on and in our fruit. We spray annually, using a horse-power machine, illustrated in former reports of the State Horticultural Society, for the leaf-eating insects named, using London purple and clear water, sometimes adding lime. We spray before the blossom opens, for bud moth, canker-worm and tent-caterpillar, and after the petals have fallen for codling-moth, tussock-moth, and fall web-worm. We have been successful except as to bud moth and fall web-worm. We believe we have greatly reduced the codling-moth by spraying, and we know we have destroyed the canker-worm. Have never successfully combated borers, excepting with knife and wire. Fall web-worms are burned in the tree with a gasoline torch, or the small limbs with webs are removed and burned. We have as yet found no particular method for fighting the bud moth successfully.

We gather our apples by hand in common two-bushel seamless sacks, used in the same manner as for sowing grain. A strap of heavy leather is attached, making it easy for the shoulder. A hook and ring are also put on to facilitate the removal of the sack when emptying. We prefer common straight ladders, with sides from sixteen to twenty inches apart at the bottom and six inches at the top, rounds fourteen inches apart. We use bushel boxes for hauling from the orchard to packing-house. We sort into three grades: No. 1, No. 2, and culls. No. 1's are all sound and firm apples, of about from two and one-fourth to two and one-half inches in diameter, the size of the smallest depending on the variety. We put in the No. 2 grade those that have any defects barring them from the first grade, yet they make a good second-class for immediate use; we also pack in this grade any sound apples that run uniformally small.

Of all packages tried, we prefer and use the three-bushel barrel, 171/8 inch head and 281/2 inch stave. When one head is removed, the barrel is turned over and a rap with the hand removes all trash. If we are packing a fine grade of fruit, we put a piece of white paper, cut a little less than the diameter of the barrel, in before facing. Barrels are double-faced or plated. We are careful to have the barrels rocked or shaken often while being filled. The name of variety and our trade-mark is put on the barrel with stencil or rubber stamp. No. 1's and 2's are hauled to shipping station in barrels; culls in bulk in ordinary farm wagon. We have never sold our crop in the orchard; always preferred to have it picked and packed under our own supervision. Our apples have been sold in car lots. Firsts and seconds have gone to wholesale dealers. Culls we have evaporated, sold to men who evaporate, to cider-mills, and to dealers who handle bulk apples.

For drying, we use the New York hop kiln, Rival No. 2 parers, and upright bleachers, all of which have been reasonably satisfactory. We believe them the best we can get, considering the class of evaporated fruit in demand. White stock is best handled in fifty-pound boxes; chops, peelings and cores in sacks. We always found a ready market for dried fruit. Some years it paid well.

We have wintered only in cold-storage plants, always in barrels, and it has been profitable. Ben Davis and Winesap have kept best, with Missouri Pippin a close second. Jonathan keeps well under proper conditions. If kept as late as March, it is generally necessary to repack, but not always. Our greatest loss has been on Jonathan, which in some instances, when kept late in the season, has reached ten per cent.