I have no knowledge of windbreaks, but I have had a great deal of "mechanical destruction" done by borers and rabbits. Both these pests are good "mechanics" in their way and willing to work. I have the borers hunted spring and fall. Small trees I have protected from rabbits by stalks, paper, or veneering. Rabbits are not hard to head off, but they won't let a case go by default. Some people depend upon traps, dogs, guns, poison, cats, washes, wagon grease and liver to keep the rabbits away. I have known all of these to fail, but I have never known a tree well tied up with corn-stalks to suffer from "mechanical destruction" via the rabbit route, unless the string broke. There is no law against having a good string. The only pruning I have ever done has been to take out water sprouts. I don't know whether it paid or not. But I like the looks of a tree better without the pompadour effect a top full of sprouts gives it. Never have thinned apples; orchards here are self-thinners. By picking time the fruit is fully half on the ground and commonly not too much on the trees. Have never used manure or any fertilizer on apple trees. I never pastured an orchard but once. One trial cured me. I judge that one trial is nearly always enough. It is not advisable to pasture orchards, not even with hogs. The greatest pest we have is the apple worm—son, I am told, of the codling-moth. Have made no effort to check it by spraying, or otherwise.
I pick apples by hand; drop them into a sack hung over the shoulder; when the sack is full, it is emptied onto a sorting table. Make two classes of fruit: No. 1 and culls. Have never used any package but the barrel. Prefer the full-sized flour barrel. Fill barrel full enough to prevent rattling, when head is pressed in; mark faced head with variety, quality, and my name and address. Have never sold crop in orchard; often sell culls there. Have never sold a greater amount than one car-load at one time; have sold as little as one peck. The best market is sometimes at one place, sometimes at another. Minneapolis is the most distant market I have ever tried. Have mostly put my apples in cold storage. About one time out of three they have kept well. The fault was not in the apples; cold storage is either not understood or frequently mismanaged. Cold-storage people should be made to guarantee their work!—should not be paid for apples that are not delivered in the spring. Cold-storage rates (fifty cents per barrel) are absurdly high. I use male help, young and old, good and bad. Help commonly hard to get here in the fall. Wages ordinarily one dollar per day, without board.
C. D. Martindale, Scranton, Osage county: I have been on this place thirteen years, and since coming here have set every tree now on it. Trees that I set out in the spring of 1885 measure six to ten inches in diameter. In 1895 I put out 350 apple trees; in 1896 I planted 250 more, part of them were three- and four-year-old, when set. I lost only thirteen out of the 600. A few of the Missouri Pippins bore fruit last year. I consider the following varieties, in the order named, best for commercial orchard: Ben Davis, Jonathan, Winesap, Grimes's Golden Pippin; and for family use I would add Maiden's Blush, Cooper's Early White, Missouri Pippin, and Rawle's Janet. I have tried and discarded Smith's Cider and Lowell, as they blight too much. I prefer bottom land if it is properly drained, as it is apt to be richer and the trees will not suffer as much in a dry season—black loam, with a porous subsoil, to let the surplus water soak away. I think a northern slope best, as the trees do not suffer as much from the sun on hot summer days. Apple trees have done best for me on a black loam underlaid with a porous subsoil that will take the surplus water and still hold moisture in summer.
I plant by plowing light furrows (thirty-four feet apart) across the lay of the ground, then plowing two or four furrows together up and down the slope thirty-four feet apart, and run a lister in this big furrow, breaking up the ground as deeply as possible. I dip the roots of my trees in lye water, using one pound carbonate of lye to eight gallons of water. Then fill in with a spade around the roots, being careful not to leave any holes for mice to nest in. Two- or three-year-old trees, with roots and top well balanced, no forks to split down when the tree gets older, bark smooth and good color, I consider best. I prefer piece-root to whole-root grafts. My experience is that we get better trees on piece roots, as the union is lower down in the ground and the scion throws out roots, which makes the trees healthy and not wholly dependent on seedling roots. I cultivate my orchard till ten or twelve years old, and keep all weeds and grass away, using an eight-inch plow with one horse next to the trees and backfurrow to every other row; then use two horses and fourteen-inch plow for the middles. The next year I backfurrow to the rows left the year before; in this way we have no large back or dead furrows, but keep the ground level. In cultivating I use a fourteen-tooth Peerless harrow each side of the row, and cultivate the rest with two-horse cultivator; then use a good sharp hoe close to the trees. Corn is the best crop to raise among young trees, as it acts as a windbreak and a partial shade. After an orchard gets to bearing, seed to red clover. I would change from corn to clover eight or nine years after setting.
Windbreaks are essential. I would have them on the south and west sides of the orchard, at least. I would make them of evergreen, Osage orange, or mulberry. I would not plant black walnut, cottonwood, or maple, as they are injurious to apple trees. Plant peach trees between the apple trees; they grow fast, and protect the apple until large enough to stand the winds. The best thing I have found to keep rabbits, mice, etc., off the trees is a protector made of five lath two feet long, woven with wire; they can be left on summer and winter, as sunlight and air can pass through to the bark and keep it healthy and keep the sun from scalding the bark; it also keeps the borers and the whippletree from doing much damage; they can be left on until the trees outgrow them. I cut out all limbs that are liable to rub each other at any future time, and all limbs that are liable to split down as the tree gets older; I also trim high enough to let a small horse walk under the limbs. I take off the back pad while working among the trees, so it will not be catching on the limbs; I think that it pays, and is beneficial. I have not thinned the fruit while on the trees. My trees are planted in alternate rows of different kinds, so I cannot tell what is best, blocks or mixed. I use all the barn-yard litter broadcast that I can get, and wish I had more. I shall plow under a good crop of red clover about every other year, and seed again the same year to clover, as I think it beneficial; I would do the same on all lands that I have yet tried. I do not let horses or cattle over one year old pasture in the orchard. I let calves and small pigs have access to the orchard, as they will eat up a great many wormy apples that drop, and help keep down the weeds. I think it advisable to pasture with young stock, and that it pays.
My apple trees are troubled with canker-worm, twig-borer, and leaf-crumpler. The codling-moth troubled my apples some last year. I have not tried spraying as yet. I have found borers in a few trees that were out in the grass near the fence. I pick my apples by hand; using step-ladders for the lower limbs, and longer ladders, wide at the bottom and very narrow at the top, for the upper limbs. While picking in the inside of a tree, I use a half-bushel sack made to hang on a limb, and so arranged that it can be let to the ground and emptied without getting out of the tree. I make three grades of my apples: First, good size, smooth, free from worms, and good calyx; second, apples under size, a little specked and wormy; third, culls. I have been sorting from the pile, but think I shall use a table made with the back end the higher, and the top made of heavy canvas without end, and passing over rollers at each end, so the apples can be brought in reach without handling them; then I would arrange my barrels so that the apples can be placed in them without bruising. I prefer the three-bushel barrel to ship in; but for handling I want a one-bushel box with handholes in the ends. I would pack the barrels as tight as possible, and then mark the name of variety, grade and name of grower on it. I would ship them by fast freight or express.
Sometimes I sell in the orchard. I have generally sold by retail and peddled, as I have a good set of customers. I can do as well to sell direct to the consumer as to sell at wholesale. I sell second grade to any one that will buy. I feed the culls to cattle and hogs, and let the hens have all they want. I have had a market near home for all I have grown; may have to look further when all my trees bear. I have not tried distant markets. What I have tried took all the profits. I do not think it pays to dry apples, unless on an extensive scale. I store my apples for winter market in a dry cellar. I pack in both barrels and boxes while in the cellar; prefer boxes, as they are easier to handle and sort from. I have not been as successful as I would like, but think I have done as well as many apple-growers have with the number of trees I have. The Ben Davis, Winesap and Janet have kept the best for me. I have not tried artificial cold storage. If apples are held any length of time, I repack, so as to be sure they are up to grade. I do not lose over two per cent. In the fall apples sold at about thirty cents per bushel, and through the winter fifty to eighty cents per bushel. I employ careful men to pick and handle my fruit. I pay from fifteen dollars to eighteen dollars a month and board.
S. Reynolds, Lawrence, Douglas county: I have lived in Kansas forty-three years; have an apple orchard planted from two to forty years. I planted my first orchard in 1858, and, not knowing anything about what sorts would be suitable for Kansas, I had to rely entirely on what the Missouri nurserymen recommended. Among the sorts planted which proved failures were Yellow Bellflower, Fulton Strawberry, White Winter Pearmain, Baldwin, the Russets and some others. Winesap, Rawle's Janet, Dominie and White Bellflower all did fairly well. Of all the sorts the Winesap has been the most profitable. If I had planted that first orchard chiefly to Winesaps, the cash receipts would have been more than double. My later experience and observations prove that the Missouri Pippin is the most profitable apple to grow for the market, the Winesap and Ben Davis following next in order. For a family orchard, I prefer Early Harvest, Maiden's Blush, Jonathan, and Winesap. I prefer second bottom, with a rich soil and a porous subsoil. I prefer two-year-old, vigorous trees, set in rows two rods apart. Use a potato hook.