Jesse Royer, Gove, Gove county: Have lived in Kansas thirteen years. I have four apple trees seven years old. I prefer upland with an eastern or northeast slope. For planting, I prefer good two-year-old trees. I cultivate my orchard all the time; would plant corn, and cultivate with any tool that would do good work and kill the weeds; would not plant any crop in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of any kind of forest-trees excepting walnut; plant two or three rows of them all around the orchard. I prune some to give shape to trees and take out all dead branches, and think it pays. I think a good rich [?] mulching would be beneficial, and would advise its use on all soils. Do not pasture my orchard. I would spray if it was necessary; insects are not very bad here. I do not dry any.

FRUIT DISTRICT No. 3.

Following is the third fruit district, comprised of thirty-one counties in the southwest quarter of the state. Reports, or rather experiences, from each of these counties will be found immediately following. We give below the number of apple trees in the third district, compiled from the statistics of 1897. Many thousands were added in the spring of 1898.

Bearing.Not bearing.Total.
Barber12,90116,38429,285
Barton25,14624,19649,342
Clark7351,9422,677
Comanche1,0101,5122,522
Edwards3,3786,67210,050
Finney6,13910,55916,698
Ford2,2814,1786,459
Grant8523001,152
Gray4102,7153,125
Greeley10402412
Hamilton7412,2422,983
Harper36,29620,50856,804
Haskell328141469
Hodgeman4156751,090
Kearny4,4057,31211,717
Kingman39,24923,41662,765
Kiowa1,6832,2123,895
Lane1,6472,5244,171
Meade1,3402,2003,540
Ness1,1881,6302,818
Pawnee11,1377,80018,937
Pratt12,89412,96325,857
Reno141,460280,713422,173
Rice65,06945,133110,202
Rush2,1182,6294,747
Scott2291,9362,165
Seward4326021,034
Stafford22,91427,37750,291
Stanton10150160
Stevens8971,6512,548
Wichita909591,049
Total in district397,304513,633910,937
Estimated acreage60,000100,000160,000

D. J. McNeal, Scott, Scott county: I have lived in Kansas ten years; have an apple orchard of sixty-five trees five years old, seven feet high. I prefer a clay soil with a north aspect. I plant two-year-old trees in ground that has been plowed for two years before planting. I cultivate my orchard with a disc harrow and cultivator, and plant nothing. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of cottonwoods. I rub rabbits' blood on the trees to protect them from other rabbits. I prune my trees with a knife and a fine saw; I think it beneficial. I have fertilized my orchard with stable litter, but it causes a too rapid growth; I would not advise its use on all soils. I do not pasture my orchard; it is not advisable; it does not pay. I am not troubled with insects, and do not spray. I do not irrigate, but think it would pay.

G. O. Vick, Fowler, Meade county: Have lived in Kansas fourteen years. I planted an apple orchard twelve years ago; have about fifty Missouri Pippins, that have not failed to give us a crop for seven or eight years; last fall we got three bushels from a single tree—the most ever taken from one tree by us. They are fine keepers, and are said to be much better, both in color and flavor, than those grown farther east. We have kept them in fine condition until July following, and then the supply gave out. Have no trees where they can be irrigated, but hope to put out an orchard next spring that can be irrigated. I have the finest location [for irrigation] in the West, and will do my best. I prefer valley land, with a southeast slope. Prices have been two dollars per bushel.