For protection from rabbits he uses a wash of lye and soft soap on the tree. In pruning he believes it pays to cut out sap sprouts, and balance up the tree. He fertilizes by placing stable litter around the trees in winter, and spreading it in the spring, and says it pays. Says it certainly pays and does no harm to pasture the old orchards with calves. He is troubled with canker-worm, flathead borer, tarnish plant-bug, fall web-worm, and leaf-crumpler, also with codling-moth. He sometimes sprays for codling-moth and canker-worm, and thinks he has reduced both of them materially. Cuts out borers and washes the tree with lye. Has tried kerosene oil on borers and says it did not seem to injure the trees. He picks in baskets, dumps in piles in the orchard, and covers with coarse hay. Sorts into two classes—sellers and cider apples. Uses barrels as a package. Makes cider vinegar and hog feed of culls, and sells his good apples in various ways; has sold in orchard. His best markets are the surrounding towns and the neighboring farmers. Never dries any, and only stores enough for winter use of family. Price in 1896 was seventy-five cents for best, fifty cents for seconds. Hires no help.
Robert Montgomery, Troy, Doniphan county: Came to Kansas in 1857; served three years in the United States army, and have been here ever since. I have 4000 apple trees that have been set from twenty to thirty years. My market varieties are Ben Davis, Jonathan, and Missouri Pippin. For family use I added Yellow Transparent, Red June, Chenango Strawberry, White Winter Pearmain, Rawle's Janet, and Nelson's Sweet. I have discarded the Baldwin, Spitzenberg, Northern Spy, Early Harvest, and Early Pennock. Bottom land is not good; hills and hollows are best, with north or east slope; what we call mulatto soil is best. I prefer thrifty two- or three-year-old trees with low tops. Half of my trees are planted thirty feet each way. I now plant in rows two rods apart north and south and one rod apart in the row. I raise corn and potatoes among my trees for five or seven years, cultivating with the plow and the hoe; afterward I seed to clover; a disc can be used to good advantage every year; I keep the orchard in clover. Windbreaks are beneficial on high land, made of cottonwood, or better of cedar or Norway spruce, planted on the south side when you plant the orchard. I protect from rabbits with wooden protectors, leaving them on the year round. I cut the borers out with a knife, also use a wire. I shape the head of young trees by cutting out all the watersprouts with pruning shears and saw; old trees must be pruned or the apples will be small.
Barn-yard litter is beneficial on thin land, not necessary on rich land, but ashes are good on any soil. I pasture my orchard in summer with young horses and hogs. I think it advisable, as the hogs eat the apples that drop and destroy the worms. I have never sprayed. I pick in half-bushel baskets, and sacks with an iron hoop in the mouth; pour them in barrels and haul them to the barn, except those we wish to ship at once, which we sort in the orchard. I make two classes—good, sound, merchantable apples, and seconds. I have a culler that holds one barrel. I sort into a barrel, throwing the culls into another barrel, and I afterward sort the culls, for seconds; I pack in eleven-peck barrels, full and pressed solid, marked with the name of the variety written on the barrel. I sell the best at wholesale in barrels, the second grade by car-loads in bulk; the culls I give away, feed to hogs and cows, and make into cider. My best market is East and North. Have never shipped more than 500 or 600 miles away, and it paid. Have never dried any, and only store in barrels in my barn until I get a sale for them, never later than December. Price in the orchards in 1896 was seventy-five cents per barrel; in 1897, one dollar and a half. I use men for picking, at one dollar per day and their dinner.
F. W. Dixon, Holton, Jackson county: Has been in Kansas twenty-seven years; has an apple orchard of 6000 trees, set from three to twenty-five years. Grows and recommends for commercial orchard: Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Jonathan, Winesap, and Gano. For family orchard: Winesap, Ben Davis, Jonathan, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Maiden's Blush, and Rawle's Janet. Has tried and discarded Yellow Transparent, Early Harvest, Red June, Wagener, Willow Twig, Dominie, Roman Stem, Seek-no-further, Porter, Pound Sweet, Nyack Pippin, and Minkler, because they did not pay; some blighted and failed to bear. Prefer timber soil, or sandy loam with open clay subsoil; bottom land is good if it has not a hard-pan subsoil. Apples will not succeed well planted on ordinary sod, with impervious subsoil. Plant thrifty two-year-old trees, from four to six feet high, well branched. Cultivate as long as the tree lives; use turning plow in spring, and follow with harrow every week during summer until orchard comes into bearing; then get some tool that will stir the ground two to three inches deep, and cultivate often. Cultivation pays better than fertilizer or anything else. He grows small fruit among the trees, but believes corn the best crop up to eight or nine years; then grows nothing. Does not think windbreaks essential, and would have none on the east or north; would not object to windbreak of Russian mulberry, or other hardy trees, on south and west. For rabbits, he wraps the trees, and keeps two good beagle hounds. Does not prune, except to keep watersprouts off, and cuts out limbs that cross. Thinks the wind thins the fruit sufficiently. Believes the best apples are self-pollenizers, and need no other varieties near, and that it does not pay to grow others. Never use any fertilizer. If orchard "runs out," would have another ready to take its place. Allows no stock in orchard. Is not troubled with insects. Has sprayed a little for tent-caterpillar. He digs out borers with a knife. His best market has been at home, selling by the bushel or wagon-load to farmers who do not grow any. Believes thorough cultivation better than irrigation. Prevailing prices, thirty-five to seventy-five cents per bushel. Uses male help, at one dollar per day without board.
S. H. Domoney, Aurora, Cloud county: Have been in Kansas ten years. Have an orchard of —— trees, planted from twelve to fourteen years, of Ben Davis, Winesap and Missouri Pippin for market, and Red June, Duchess of Oldenburg, Cooper's Early White and Kansas Keeper for family use. I prefer limestone soil with gravelly subsoil, in the bottom, with north slope, if possible. Prefer trees two years old with low heads. "I like a tree with a tap-root." Plow deeply and plant in loose soil, thirty feet apart each way. I grow potatoes and sweet corn for six or seven years, after which I sow orchard-grass. The best tool for cultivating is a disc harrow. Growing no crop in the orchard. I think windbreaks are essential, and prefer Russian mulberry, three rows, planted six by eight feet apart. I like the mulberry best because they come into leaf early and hold their foliage late. I prune a little, to thin out and let the sun in. I believe it would pay to thin fruit on the trees. I use stable litter, and fertilizer from the hog-pen, and think it pays if not put too close to the tree. I tried pasturing with hogs, but don't think it advisable, as they destroy the trees to get apples. I spray some with London purple after the bloom falls, to destroy canker-worm and codling-moth, and think I have reduced the latter by such spraying. I dig borers out. We pick by hand, and sort into very best, second best, and culls. I sell at retail and to the grocers in Concordia, Kan. I make some cider, and feed culls to the hogs; never dried any; winter some in barrels and boxes, and find Ben Davis and Missouri Pippin the best keepers. I do not irrigate. Use no hired help. Prices have ranged from fifty cents in summer to eighty cents in winter.
H. L. Ferris, Osage City, Osage county: A citizen of Kansas for twenty-one years. Have an orchard of 4000 apple trees—200 twenty years, 1800 seventeen years, 2000 sixteen years planted. Prefer, for commercial purposes, Ben Davis, Winesap, and Missouri Pippin; for family orchard: Winesap, Missouri Pippin, Jonathan, Romanite, and Maiden Blush; have discarded Rawle's Janet. Prefer good upland corn ground, with sand or gravel subsoil, north and east slope. I plow deep, and plant large two-year-old trees, shallow, and mound up; shorten roots and branches. Cultivate with plow and harrow from youth to old age. Grow corn in young orchard up to six years, afterward nothing. Prefer a windbreak on south, west, and north, of box-elders, Osage orange, or peach. Rub liver on trees to repel rabbits, and use a knife for borers. To prune with a little saw makes the trees grow faster, and the apples grow larger, and it pays. Use stable and barn-yard litter to fertilize with, and it pays. Would not allow live stock to run in orchard. Am troubled with roundheaded borers and codling-moth. Spray in May and June for bitter rot and fungous diseases. Fight borers with a five-eighths chisel, a wire, and coal-tar. Pick from step-ladders into tin pails hung to branch with wire hook; haul in boxes on spring wagon to packing place. Sort on tables into three grades—first, second, and cider apples; pack into eleven- or twelve-peck barrels. Sell in all ways; have sold in orchard. Ship the best; best market in Texas. Send six-inch apples to where they are scarce; culls I sell cheaply at home, evaporate some, and make vinegar. Use a Zimmerman evaporator and Eureka parers. Sell dried fruit at retail, have shipped some; do not think it pays, do not find a ready market. Store for winter use in boxes in cellar successfully; find Romanite and Winesap keep best; lose about one-fourth. Have irrigated some from a pond with an eight-inch hose and steam-power pump. Average price has been fifty cents per bushel for apples and five cents a pound for dried apples. Use male help gathering, and female help at dryer, paying eight to ten cents per hour.