Dr. Chas. Williamson, Washington, Washington county: I have lived in Kansas forty years. My first planted orchard is thirty-eight years old and the second thirty years. For market I prefer Ben Davis, Winesap, Missouri Pippin, and Rawle's Janet; and for family use Ben Davis, Winesap, Jonathan, Rome Beauty, Rambo, Early June, and Romanite. I have tried and discarded Cooper's Early White, because it is a short-lived tree and a shy bearer. I prefer bottom land with a black loam and a clay subsoil, with a north and east slope. I plant trees thirty feet apart. I would advise cultivation for three years; seed bearing orchard to white clover. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of mulberries and cedar; plant seed for mulberries and set small cedars. For rabbits I use traps and dogs. I prune, but not very much; I cut out watersprouts and dead limbs, and thin out the top so as to let sun in. I never have thinned the fruit on the trees, but think it would pay. I keep bees to help pollinize the blossoms. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter; trees and plant life, as well as stock, need food. I do not pasture my orchard; it is not advisable. I have sprayed with London purple. I protect my trees from the sun, and the bark being full of sap the borers will not trouble them. I hand-pick my apples and pack in barrels in the orchard. I sell in the orchard at retail. My best market is at home. Do not dry any. I store some apples, and find Ben Davis, Winesap and Missouri Pippin keep best. When packing apples for storing I wrap each apple in paper and put a paper between the layers in the boxes; then put them in the cellar, and they keep well. I open the cellar door on warm days. Prices have been from 35 cents to $1.10 per bushel.
There is not a state in the union but what is profiting by the experiences of such men as friend Wellhouse, the "Apple King," and other horticulturists, who are leaving a legacy to future generations. My experience in orcharding has been as an amateur ever since 1856. My orchard has been for home use, but now, with my experience gained here in Kansas, I am planting in the Ozark country, near Olden, exclusively for market purposes (the same can be done in Kansas), but takes longer to come to maturity. Taxes are low in Missouri. The orchardist should not be assessed on his fruit-trees and pay the penalty for being energetic and a pusher in horticulture. In Kansas, thanks to the life work of the members of the State Horticultural Society, we have reached a point where the culture of fruit is an assured success; and there is more money in it than in hog or corn raising. The trouble has been, too many worthless varieties have been planted, and now that they are bearing are profitless; and the worst of it is they are repeating the same mistake each year. I have saved some valuable trees from the borers by taking a quarter-inch bit and boring a hole and putting in strychnine or sulphur, and the tree lived on while all others died; even in the black locust it was successful. I then plug the outside portion of the hole. Let some one explain the reason who understands the circulation of the sap.
Ernst Fairchild, Hiawatha, Brown county: I have lived in Kansas thirty years; have an apple orchard of fifteen acres, twelve years old. For market I prefer Jonathan, Ben Davis, and Rawle's Janet; and for a family orchard Snow, Winesap, and some sweet varieties. I prefer an east slope. I cultivate my orchard to corn or oats for eight or nine years, using a disc and harrow, and cease cropping at the end of this time and seed down to clover. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of forest-trees set in rows, on the north and west sides. I prune my trees to give shape. I pick my apples in square tin pails which have false bottoms; slide the fruit out at the bottom. I make vinegar of the cull apples. Prices have been from sixty cents to one dollar per barrel. I employ men and boys—men at one dollar per day and boys seventy-five cents per day.
Neils Hanson, Willis, Brown county: I have resided in the state thirty-two years; have an orchard of 200 apple trees twenty years old. For all purposes, I prefer Ben Davis, Jonathan, Willow Twig, and Strawberry. Have tried and would discard Willow Twig and Lawver. I prefer bottom land having a clay soil and a north or east slope. When planting trees, I dig a hole two feet deep and four feet square. I cultivate my orchard eight or ten years, using a plow, and spade around the trees. I plant corn or oats in a young orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of maples or willows and cultivate the same as a crop. I prune to thin the tops, and think it beneficial. I thin the fruit when small, if the trees are overloaded. Can see no difference whether the trees are planted in blocks of one kind, or mixed up. I fertilize my orchard, but not close to the trees; would not advise it on bottom land. I pasture my orchard with calves and hogs, but it is not advisable; it does not pay.
I do not spray. I am experimenting with my trees; I make a hole two inches deep, one-fourth inch in diameter, put in medicine and plug up tight with grafting wax over it. It is claimed to kill all the insects on the tree for four or five years to come. I can tell the results this fall. It costs $10 to try it. [Hear! hear!] My neighbors spray their trees when in blossom, and say it pays. I pick my apples by hand, sort into two classes, and pack in barrels, filled full, and marked with consignee's name and hauled to shipping place on wagon. I never sell apples in the orchard, because they [the pickers] ruin the trees. I wholesale my best, second and third grade apples to the one offering the most for them. I feed the culls to hogs. Hiawatha is my best market. I never tried distant markets; it would not pay, unless in car-load lots. I dry apples, put them in sacks and hang in a dry place, and find a ready market for them; it pays. Am successful in storing apples in boxes—made of lath an inch apart—in an arched cave. I find Ben Davis and Rawle's Janet keep best. I have to repack stored apples before marketing, losing about one-tenth of them. I do not irrigate. Prices have been about one dollar per barrel. I pay eighteen to twenty dollars per month and board for help.
Isaac M. Taylor, Richmond, Franklin county: I have lived in Kansas thirty years; have about fifty apple trees eight years old, ten feet high. For market I prefer Jonathan and Ben Davis; for a family orchard, Romanstem, Gilpin, Rawle's Janet, Winesap, and Hubbardston's Nonesuch. Have tried and discarded McAfee Nonesuch, Belleflower, and Missouri Pippin. I prefer a gentle east slope at the bottom of a hill, with a deep sandy loam or four feet of red land on lime rock. I prefer two-year-old trees set thirty by thirty feet apart, in holes dug eighteen inches deep, and filled one-third full of surface soil. I cultivate my orchard as long as it lasts with a twelve-inch plow; throw the dirt away first of June, and back in August; then harrow it. I plant potatoes and corn in a young orchard, and cease cropping after ten years. I plant nothing in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of rows of Osage orange on the north and south sides of the orchard. I prune as little as possible. I fertilize my orchard with cow-stable and horse-stable litter mixed; I think it beneficial, and would advise it on all soils, unless very rich. I pasture my orchard once in a while with hogs without rings in their noses, so they can hunt worms. My trees are troubled with borers. I do not spray. I pick my apples in sack from ladders. Sort into three classes, and peddle them. I use Topping's driers and Williams's parers; they are satisfactory. After drying I pack in fifty-pound boxes. I find a ready market in Kansas City for them, but it does not pay. I am successful in storing apples in small boxes and barrels in a cellar; Gilpin and Ben Davis keep best. I have to repack stored apples before marketing, losing about five per cent. I do not irrigate. Prices were thirty-five to fifty cents in the fall; seventy-five cents to one dollar in the spring [1897].