Geo. A. Wise, Reserve, Brown county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-nine years. Have an orchard of 22,000 apple trees; 150 are eighteen years old, the rest are twenty-four years old. I have the Ben Davis, Gano, Jonathan, York Imperial, Winesap, and Missouri Pippin, and for my own use add to the above Grimes's Golden, and some summer varieties. I have tried and discarded Willow Twig as short-lived, and Northern Spy for shy bearing. In this county I would choose upland, northern slope, with black loam soil. Would plant two-year-old, sound trees, without fork, thirty-three feet apart each way, and three inches deeper than they grew in the nursery. I cultivate thoroughly, planting to corn from six to eight years. I use a disc harrow and one-horse, five-tooth cultivator; I then sow to red clover, and cease cropping when the limbs reach out far enough to prevent me passing through with the hay-rack. While I would not object to a windbreak on the south side, I do not think it necessary. I wrap my trees with grass and am not bothered with rabbits. I believe in pruning trees while young; I cut off limbs that do not stand at an angle of forty-five degrees, and thin out to prevent being top-heavy. I have never thinned apples on the trees, but believe it would pay. I fertilize the ground all over with stable litter. I believe it does no harm and pays to pasture the orchard with hogs. I have never sprayed any. I pick apples by hand from a step-ladder into half-bushel measures, and sort into three grades—first, sound, and not wormy; second, may be wormy, but otherwise sound; third, cider. I pack in barrels, and sell at wholesale, usually in the orchard. I sell the second-grade apples in bulk; make culls into cider and feed to horses and cattle. Never have tried a distant market. Never dried any. Sometimes store a few for winter in bulk in a cave; not satisfactory. Find that the Winesap and Missouri Pippin keep best. Some years apples keep better than they do others. Have never tried irrigation. Prices have varied from sixty cents to $1.25 per barrel. I use all kinds of help, paying from seventy-five cents to one dollar per day.
H. M. Rice, Muscotah, Atchison county: Have resided in Kansas twenty-eight years. Have an apple orchard of 8000 trees—5000 one year planted, 500 five years planted, 1000 seven years planted, 500 nine years planted, 1000 ten years planted. Planted for commercial purpose Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, and Grimes's Golden Pippin, and for family use advise Winesap, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Jonathan, Red June, Rawle's Janet, and Romanite. Declare Golden Russet and Sops of Wine no good. Use upland; prefer north or northeast slope; any good corn land will do. Plant good, thrifty two-year-old trees, eighteen feet apart north and south, and thirty-four feet apart east and west. Am trying 5000 root grafts. Cultivate with five-tooth cultivator with twenty-inch singletree, and a mule; up to bearing age, with corn and potatoes as a ground crop; after that seed to clover. Do not think windbreaks essential for large orchards; would advise three rows of soft maples around small orchards. Use against rabbits a wash of equal parts carbolic acid and water. It pays to remove watersprouts. Use all the barn-yard litter available. Pasture with horses and colts in winter only; it pays. Spray from the time the leaves appear until the apples are as big as hickory-nuts, to kill canker-worm, codling-moth, and leaf-crumpler. For borers, wash trees about June 1 with equal parts carbolic acid and water, and if any get in after that dig them out with a knife. Sort into firsts, seconds, and culls. Use barrels well shaken and pressed, marked with variety and name of grower. Usually wholesale as soon as picked. Make culls into vinegar when I cannot sell them in bulk. Never dried any, and put none away for winter except a few in boxes for family use. Find that Missouri Pippin, Rawle's Janet and Romanite keep the best. Prices run from $1.50 to $3 per barrel. Use men, women, and boys, and pay 11/2 to 2 cents per bushel for hand picking.
H. C. Riggs, Wetmore, Nemaha county: Has lived in Kansas twenty-seven years; has an orchard of 400 trees, set from two to twenty years. Advises for market Ben Davis, Winesap, Missouri Pippin, and for family use adds Cooper's Early White, Red June, and Jonathan. Has discarded Willow Twig and White Winter Pearmain, because both "rot on the trees." Prefers porous clay or loam in dry bottom, with north aspect. Plants two-year-old, low-top, fibrous-rooted trees with a spade, after marking out both ways with a plow. Grows corn and potatoes in orchard, and cultivates up to eight or ten years with double-shovel plow. Would put windbreaks of cottonwood or soft maple on southern exposure. Protects from rabbits by wrapping. Prunes with saw and chisel, and says it pays. Uses well-rotted stable litter while orchard is young. Thinks cautious pasturing with hogs or young calves would pay. Is troubled with some insects, but does not spray. Picks and sorts into three classes: "Winter storage," "immediate use," and "cider apples." Sells mostly in orchard. Dries only for family use. Stores in bulk, and finds that Ben Davis keeps best. Says that his trees that got the waste water from the well were much benefited. Price, about seventy-five cents per barrel.
P. S. Taylor, Eskridge, Wabaunsee county: Have been in Kansas thirty-two years; have 1100 trees planted eleven years, that are now thirty-two inches in circumference. I prefer for market Ben Davis, Jonathan, Missouri Pippin, and York Imperial, and for family use would advise Jonathan, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Winesap, and York Imperial. Have discarded Rawle's Janet, Cooper's Early White, and Smith's Cider, also Winesap as a market apple. Prefer a deep, sandy loam, with clay subsoil, bottom or slope land, with northeast aspect. Plant thrifty, medium-sized, three-year-old trees twenty feet apart north and south, and forty feet east and west. I cultivate for six years in corn and potatoes; then sow to clover, plowing this under every third or fourth year, using the Acme harrow run shallow. I believe windbreaks are beneficial, and would prefer two rows of white elms mismatched. I wrap the trunks of trees, for protection against rabbits. I believe in pruning out all watersprouts and crossing branches; it facilitates gathering and the fruit colors better. I have tried thinning on Missouri Pippins, Winesaps, and Romanites, knocking them off with a pitchfork. I believe in fertilizing orchards on all prairie soils with barn-yard litter. I pasture my orchard when the trees are vigorous and the soil not wet, with calves and pigs; I believe it pays if done with moderation. I spray after the petals fall, using Paris green for codling-moth, and believe I have reduced them. For borers I use a knife and wire. I pick by hand in half-bushel baskets and sort into three classes: perfect, medium size, and culls. We sort from bins in a light, airy shed, and pack carefully by hand into standard barrels, marked firsts and seconds, and haul to market on springs. I sell my second grade fruit to western wagoners; we feed culls to hogs and cows. We do best in our home market. For winter we store in bins in the cellar, and are usually successful. Prices have ranged from fifty cents to one dollar. For help I employ only my three sons, and give them an interest in the proceeds.
Thomas Arbuthnot, Cuba, Republic county: Have been in Kansas thirty years. Have 6000 apple trees nine years old. I prefer two-year-old trees, five to six feet tall, planted after a lister run as deep as possible. I cultivate with the plow and disc, growing corn in the orchard for six or seven years; after that nothing. I believe in windbreaks. I prune a little. Never thin the fruit. Do not use any fertilizer on the ground, and never pasture the orchard. I do not spray, but use a torch every evening to burn the insects; one torch will draw the insects about 300 feet, and we think this better than spraying. [Such lights are liable to destroy as many beneficial as noxious insects.] I sell to wagons, as there is sufficient demand here from the western counties to take in that way all that I have to spare. Have never dried any, nor stored any for winter. I do not irrigate. Prices have been, twenty-five cents for culls, and forty to fifty cents per bushel for everything else. My orchard is only commencing to bear fruit on all the trees.