Thomas E. Taylor, Pearl, Dickinson county: I have lived in the state seventeen years. Have an apple orchard of seventy trees, fifty of which are twelve years old, and the other twenty are eighteen years old. I prefer Maiden's Blush, Missouri Pippin, and Winesap. Have tried and discarded Lowell, Jonathan, Grimes's Golden Pippin, and Willow Twig, on account of blight. I prefer bottom land having a sandy soil and a clay subsoil, with a north slope. I prefer two-year-old healthy trees, set in ground which has been plowed very deep. I water the tree well when I plant it. I have cultivated as long as it was possible to get between the trees. I generally use a common plow and disc harrow during the summer, where I have no crop in. I grow corn, Kafir-corn and potatoes in a young orchard. Cease cropping my orchard when twelve years old. I mow the weeds with a machine. I think windbreaks a benefit; would make them of box-elder, ash, or red cedar. I use a pruning-knife on my trees every year, leaving the branches quite thick on the south side. I think it pays. Never have thinned the fruit on the trees. I fertilize my orchard every two or three years with stable litter. I think it beneficial. I do not pasture my orchard; it is not advisable, does not pay. Do not spray. Prices at picking time are forty to fifty cents per bushel.
H. Dubois, Burlingame, Osage county: I have lived in Kansas forty-one years. Have an orchard of fifty apple trees from ten to twenty years old. For market I prefer Ben Davis, Winesap, and Missouri Pippin, and would add for family orchard Early Harvest, Duchess of Oldenburg, and Maiden's Blush. I prefer a rich bottom having a red subsoil, and a northeast slope. I prefer thrifty, two-year-old, medium-height trees, set thirty feet each way. I cultivate my orchard as long as it lives with a shovel plow and cultivator, and keep the ground stirred. Plant potatoes in a young orchard, and cease cropping when the trees begin to bear; then sow oats and let the pigs eat it off while it is green. Windbreaks are not essential here, but some have forest-trees planted on the north side of their orchards. I prune my trees in the spring to give shape; cannot say whether it is beneficial or not. I fertilize my orchard with barn-yard litter. I pasture my orchard with pigs until the ripe fruit begins to fall; I think it advisable and that it pays, as the pigs eat all the wormy and worthless fruit that falls. My trees are troubled with tent-caterpillar, root aphis, round- and flat-headed borers, and woolly aphis, and my apples with codling-moth.
A. J. Kleinhans, Grantville, Jefferson county: I have lived in the state forty-one years. Have an apple orchard of 300 trees, twenty to twenty-five years old. For market I prefer Winesap and Ben Davis; and for family orchard Summer Astrachan, Bellflower, and White Winter Pearmain. Have tried and discarded Missouri Pippin, Russet, Baldwin, Red Astrachan, Little Romanite, and Pound Pippin. My orchard is situated in the Kaw valley. I plant my orchard to corn, until the trees get too large; then cease cropping and seed to clover and timothy. I prune lightly, to keep the limbs off the ground and let in the sun and light; I think it pays. I do not thin the fruit while on the trees. I pasture my orchard late in the fall with young dehorned cattle; I think it advisable and that it pays. My trees are troubled with canker-worms; and my apples with codling-moths. I do not spray. I sell apples in the orchard at wholesale.
J. W. Atkinson, Perry, Jefferson county: I have resided in Kansas seventeen years; have an apple orchard of 2100 trees from two to eighteen years old. For market I prefer Winesap, Missouri Pippin, and Jonathan. I have tried and discarded Ben Davis; the tree is not hardy. I prefer a porous, red-clay subsoil, and a northeast or east aspect. I cultivate my orchard to corn six years from setting, and cease cropping after twelve years. I seed the bearing orchard to clover. Windbreaks are essential on the south and west sides of the orchard; when possible, natural forest is best. I prune my trees sparingly to improve the grade of fruit; I think it pays when properly done. I do not thin the fruit on the trees. Can see no difference whether trees are in block [of one kind] or mixed plantings. I fertilize my orchard when it needs it with barn-yard litter and wood ashes; would not advise it on all soils. I do not pasture my orchard. My trees are troubled with root aphis, and my apples with codling-moth and curculio. I spray twice after the blossom falls, with Paris green. I can get rid of borers only by persistent effort. I sort my apples into four classes: No. 1, No. 2, drying, and stock and cider. Pack in twelve-peck barrels, and market in apple racks. I sometimes wholesale my apples in the orchard. Never tried distant markets. I do not dry any.
Am successful in storing in barrels in a fruit house which is built near the crest of a hill with a fall of 14 in 100 feet. Excavated twenty-three by fifty-three feet; depth at extreme back end, fourteen feet; at front seven feet. Tile ditch fourteen inches deeper than the excavation next to bank, filled with broken rock. Stone wall ten feet high; fine broken rock between wall and bank from ditch to top of wall around the entire building. The front end of the building stands three feet out of the ground, allowing two windows in the front with refrigerator shutters, also a refrigerator door. Heavy timbers, supported by posts covered with bridge lumber, constitute the framework, upon which is seven feet of earth. Through the roof are five sewer-pipe ventilators covered by thimble tops. In the front end are four small ventilators. In the extreme back end is placed an elevator building forming an opening six feet square; this extends eight feet above the top of the earth covering. There are three windows and one door in the elevator building. By means of small ventilators the house can be ventilated very gradually, but by the elevator opening in the back end of the building, and the windows and door in the front end, the air can all be swept out by natural draft and replaced by fresh air. Five minutes is sufficient to thoroughly ventilate. During all this extreme wet weather the floor of the building has been dust dry.