James Sharp, Morris county: Have been in Kansas twenty-eight years. Have an orchard in Morris county of 8000 trees, planted from two to thirteen years. I grow for market Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Jonathan, and York Imperial; would add for family Early Harvest, Maiden's Blush, and Winesap. Have tried and discarded Yellow Bellflower, Lawver, Willow Twig, and Smith's Cider; the former is barren, the others blight. I prefer second bottom with northeast slope; soil loose, black loam, with red clay subsoil. I plant in furrows each way, 16×30 feet, running a subsoiler in the furrows, and use straight, smooth, two-year-old trees. Have tried root grafts, but they need nursery care at first. I cultivate at all ages, while young with plow, and old orchard with reversible disc. I grow corn in young orchard, and after five or six years keep the ground bare with the disc. I think windbreaks essential, and use Osage orange, elm, ash, Austrian pine, and cedars. Catch the rabbits; and cultivate well as a protection from borers. Do not prune much; take out a little brush if necessary to more readily reach the fruit. Never have thinned apples. Have never fertilized, and am decidedly opposed to pasturing orchards with any kind of stock. Am troubled with canker-worm, tent-caterpillar, flathead borer, woolly aphis, twig-borer, fall web-worm, leaf-roller, leaf-crumbler, and codling-moth. Spray regularly with London purple; cannot say it has reduced the codling-moth any; for borers I keep my trees thrifty by constant cultivation. We pick in candy pails, but find it bruises the fruit too much. I sort by hand in three classes, commercial size Nos. 1 and 2, and culls. I pack in three-bushel barrels, stenciled with name of variety and grower, and ship by freight. Sell any way I can; have never sold in the orchard; sell culls for apple-butter, and make some cider; have marketed at good prices at Pueblo, Colo.; have never dried any for market. I store some for winter in boxes, barrels and in bulk in a cellar, and find that Ben Davis and Missouri Pippin keep best. I usually have to sort over those kept through, and lose perhaps one-fifth. Have never irrigated. My average returns are about fifty cents per bushel. For help I use men at one dollar per day.
James Wilson, Assaria, Saline county: Lived in Kansas twenty years; has an orchard of five acres, twenty-three years planted. For commerce he uses Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, and Jonathan, and for family use would add Maiden's Blush, Grimes's Golden Pippin, and Rawle's Janet. Has discarded Rambo as too shy a bearer. Prefers light soil, with a heavy subsoil in the bottom, with a southern slope. Plants thirty feet apart each way. Grows no crop in orchard, and cultivates with stirring plow and cultivator until the trees completely shade the ground. Believes windbreaks necessary, and would plant box-elder, three feet apart, in rows three feet apart, so as to shut out all wind. Binds with corn-stalks to protect against rabbits. Prunes by cutting off lower limbs and thinning center; says it is beneficial, and makes fruit larger and of better color. Thins apples on trees when the size of marbles, and believes it pays. On pollination he says: "I had one tree that stood alone, and never bore fruit until I got honey-bees; then it bore all right." Uses no fertilizers. Allows no live stock in the orchard. Has sprayed just after the blossom fell, with London purple and Bordeaux mixture, for the last five years, and it has reduced codling-moth. Uses knife and soap-suds for borers. Picks and sorts into three classes—sound and big, medium and affected, and culls. Sells in orchard and in Salina; makes vinegar and hog feed of culls. Never shipped any apples. Stores for winter by burying in bulk, and is successful. The Missouri Pippin and Rawle's Janet keep best. Prices from fifty to seventy-five cents per bushel. Uses boys from fourteen to twenty years of age for help, and pays fifty cents to one dollar per day with board.
J. W. Williams, Holton, Jackson county: I have lived in the state forty years; have an apple orchard of 225 trees of various ages, the oldest being thirty-nine years. For market I prefer Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and Jonathan; and for a family orchard Red Astrachan, Early Harvest, Dominie, Lowell, and Winesap. Have tried thirty varieties and discarded all excepting the above mentioned. I prefer a rich soil with a porous subsoil and a north slope; can see little difference between hilltop and bottom orchards. I prefer two-year-old trees, with symmetrical form, for setting; when planting I trim all affected roots and prune lightly; set them inclined to the southwest. I cultivate my orchard as long as it lives with a plow and harrow—plow shallow; plant the young orchard to potatoes, beans, vines, and sometimes corn, using a one-horse diamond plow, and am careful to harrow afterward. I cease cropping six or seven years after setting, and plant a bearing orchard to red clover. I think windbreaks are essential; would make them of most any kind of rapid-growing trees planted in groves on the east and south sides of the orchard. For rabbits I wrap the trees, and dig the borers out. I prune with a penknife to keep the trees in good shape. It pays if properly done, and is not too severe. I have thinned my fruit by hand when of the size of hickory-nuts. Think trees do best in mixed plantings. I fertilize my orchard with barn-yard litter and ashes; I think it beneficial, and would advise its use on all soils. I pasture my orchard with hogs part of a day at a time when the apples fall badly. Don't let them in at will. I think it pays and is advisable, for they destroy the moth. My trees are troubled with both round- and flathead borers, and my apples with codling-moth. I spray, using a hand sprayer, with Bordeaux mixture and London purple, when the blossom falls, for codling-moth and curculio. It has not been beneficial. I burn the [tent] caterpillars. I pick my apples by hand in a sack over the shoulder, and sort into three classes—first, finest; second, fair; third, culls. I sort from the ground or a table. I sell apples in the orchard, wholesale and retail, and have no trouble in selling my first-grade apples. I sell and make cider of the second and third grades, and also dry some of them. Feed the culls to hogs or other stock. My best market is at home. We dry some in a common dry-house which is very satisfactory; after they are dry we put them into sacks to keep from millers; we find a market for them, but it does not pay well. I am fairly successful in storing apples on shallow shelves in the cellar; Winesap and Rawle's Janet keep best. I do not irrigate. Apples have been about fifty cents per bushel, and dried apples three to five cents per pound.
Andrew Swanson, Dwight, Morris county: I have resided in Kansas seventeen years, and have an apple orchard of 1800 trees eight years old, eight to ten feet tall. For market I prefer Winesap, Ben Davis, and Missouri Pippin; and for family orchard would add Jonathan and Maiden's Blush. I have tried and discarded Rome Beauty, Huntsman's Favorite, and Minkler. I do not like them. I have upland, with a poor soil and a gumbo subsoil, with a north and east aspect. I prefer two-year-old trees, set thirty feet apart each way. I cultivate my orchard with a stirring plow, and intend to keep it up as long as I live; plant corn or any cultivated crop in the young orchard, and cease when there is no room; plant nothing in the bearing orchard. I think a hedge fence all around the orchard as a windbreak would be beneficial. For rabbits, I wrap the trees with wire screening, and leave it on. I prune my trees every winter, or when I have time, to thin the top and to give shape; I think it pays, and is very beneficial. I do not thin my fruit—the wind does that for me. I fertilize my orchard, and think it beneficial, and would advise it on all soils. I do not pasture my orchard; it is not advisable and does not pay. My trees are troubled with leaf-rollers and other insects. I give the culls to hogs. I am successful in storing apples in bulk in an arched cellar; Winesap, Ben Davis and Missouri Pippin keep best. I never tried artificial cold storage. I do not irrigate. Price has been seventy-five cents per bushel; dried apples eight to ten cents per pound.
F. B. Harris, White City, Morris county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-five-years, and have an orchard of 800 trees, planted from ten to fifteen years ago. For commercial purposes I prefer Maiden's Blush, Cooper's Early White, Ben Davis, Winesap, and Missouri Pippin. For a family orchard I would put out the same, adding Red June, Jonathan, and Smith's Cider. I have discarded the Willow Twig, as it rots too easily. I prefer hilltop, north slope, soil as deep as possible, and a gumbo subsoil. Would plant two-year-old trees with perfect crown growth, twenty feet north and south, thirty feet east and west. My last planting, ten years ago, was of root grafts, and I like it first rate. I grow corn in the orchard for about ten years, then nothing. I cultivate thoroughly, plowing until the soil is doubled, and then use the disc pulverizer. I believe windbreaks to be very, very, very essential, and would make of Osage orange on the outside, and any quick-growing forest-tree next to the orchard. For protection against rabbits, I tie with weeds and twine. I prune with a jackknife, a two-inch thin-bladed chisel, and mallet. It does pay, and is beneficial until the trees are ten years old. I tried thinning, but it proved more injury than profit. I use all the fertilizer from stables and stock-yards that I can get, spread all over the ground, and believe it would pay on any soil. I would allow no live stock in the orchard but poultry, and would not allow them to roost in the trees.
I have some trouble with tent-caterpillars, roundheaded borers, fall web-worm, and curculio. I spray with London purple, first when the bloom falls, then every ten days until three times, with a spray pump, using London purple. I do not know whether I have reduced the codling-moth any or not. I treat the borers with penknife and probe, others with rough handling—eternal, vigilant destruction. I pick from step-ladders into pails; place in sack to haul to the barn or shed. We sort into two classes—first, all sound and marketable, second for cider. I sort by hand from the pile, three or four bushels at a time. We pack in bushel-and-a-half sacks, filled from the half-bushel measure, mark with the name of variety, and haul to market in spring wagon. I retail and peddle them, making the culls into cider and vinegar. My best market is our nearest town; tried distant market last fall and it paid. We dry some, pack into tight boxes as soon as dried and store in dark place, and find a ready market at the stores at six cents per pound. It does not pay very well, but saves waste. I only store for family use, in headless barrels; generally keep well. Ben Davis keeps the best. We lose from one-fourth to one-half. I believe irrigation would be a good thing. Prices have been from thirty-five cents to seventy-five cents per bushel. Use only home help.