Henry Miller, Ulysses, Grant county: Have lived in Kansas fifteen years. I have 256 apple trees, nine and ten years planted, from three to five inches in diameter. I grow for market Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and Ben Davis, adding for family use Maiden's Blush and Grimes's Golden Pippin. I prefer bottom land, northeast slope, sandy soil, and gypsum subsoil. I plant in squares twenty-four by twenty-four feet. I have cultivated up to date with stirring plow and cultivator. I grow garden-truck among my trees until seven years old; after that nothing. I believe windbreaks essential in this county, and would make them of Russian mulberry, cottonwood, and locust. I would plant on the outside a row of mulberry four feet apart; next, a row of cottonwood or locust eight feet apart. To prevent destruction by rabbits I rub with fresh blood. I prune with a knife to prevent watersprouts from getting too thick; I am sure it pays, and lets sunshine into the center of the trees. I use stable litter, straw or rotted hay for fertilizer. I do not pasture my orchard, and have no insects but grasshoppers. Our crop has been light, owing to dry weather. I sell largely in the orchard. Our best market is at home. We dry a few for home use. I keep some for winter use, in a cave dug out and covered with earth. I do not irrigate. The prevailing price for apples is one dollar per bushel, and of dried apples, six cents per pound.
E. T. Daniels, Kiowa, Barber county: I have lived in the state twenty-five years. Have an apple orchard of 150 trees, from ten to sixteen years old, four to eight inches in diameter. For market I prefer Missouri Pippin, Winesap, Jonathan, Twenty-ounce Pippin, Maiden's Blush, and Rawle's Janet. Would plant the same varieties for a family orchard. Have tried and discarded Ben Davis, Early Harvest, Smith's Cider, Lawver, Fink, Walbridge, and McAfee; they will not stand the heat and drought. I prefer bottom land, with heavy loam and red subsoil, southeast slope, sheltered from north and south winds. I prefer a good yearling tree, planted in a dead furrow; after planting, plow two furrows to the tree, and then harrow. I plant my orchard to corn for two years only, using a twelve-inch plow, cultivator, and harrow. I cultivate my orchard as long as it lives, and plant nothing in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential on the south and north; would make them of a belt of deciduous trees, six rods wide on the north, and one-half as wide on the south; would make this of native trees—elm, ash, or mulberry. For rabbits I wrap the trees with hay. I prune my young trees with the thumb and finger mostly, forming low heads; bearing trees I prune very little, except to take out the blighted limbs. I thin my apples when too full, when about the size of marbles; believe it pays. My trees are in mixed plantings. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter and ashes, but cannot see any benefit; think it would do no harm, unless heavy coats of coarse manure are plowed under. Never have pastured my orchard, but am going to very soon; am fencing now, so I can turn in hogs. My trees are troubled with twig-borer, and my apples with codling-moth. I do not spray. I sell apples in the orchard, and peddle the best second and third grades; give the culls to the hogs. My best market is in Oklahoma; never have tried distant markets. I am successful in keeping apples for family use in bulk in a cyclone cellar dug in the red rock. Missouri Pippin keep the best for me. Prices have been from fifty cents to one dollar per bushel.
D. D. White, Enon, Harper county: Have lived in Kansas twenty years; have 500 apple trees planted from three to eighteen years. For commercial purposes I prefer Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, and Winesap. For family orchard I would add Maiden's Blush and Grimes's Golden Pippin. I prefer sandy bottom with an eastern slope. I would plant yearling trees, with every limb cut off, in rows twenty feet north and south, and forty feet east and west. Cultivate with double-shovel plow until they get too big to get among them, and grow nothing near them. I believe in a windbreak of mulberry, or any trees planted thickly, on the south. I prune only so that I can get under the trees. I use plenty of barn-yard litter, for it pays in the orchard. I pasture my orchard with hogs, and think it advisable, as it pays. I have sprayed, but never saw any good in it. I dig the borers out with a wire, unless they are in the heart of the tree, and then there is no help for the tree. I pick from a step-ladder, and sort into three classes: windfalls, wormy, and perfect. In picking we drop the decayed and gnarly to the ground, carry the rest in baskets to the barrel, put the perfect ones in one barrel, and the others in another. Do not disturb the best ones until you sell; the others should be sorted again before you sell. I sell some in the orchard, but peddle mostly; my best I sell to the stores in the spring; of the culls I make cider. My best market is the towns in the "Strip." I dry some satisfactorily on a cook-stove evaporator, pack in flour sacks, and find a ready and profitable market for them in the spring. I store successfully for winter in bulk and in barrels in a cave with eighteen-inch wall arched over from the bottom. I find that Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin and Winesap keep the best. We lose, perhaps, one-sixteenth. I do not irrigate. Prices range from 50 cents to $1.50 per bushel, and dried apples from five to twelve cents per pound. I use only farm hands at fifteen dollars per month and board.
Amos Johnson, Ellinwood, Barton county: Have been in Kansas twenty-three years; have an orchard of 2000 apple trees, planted from three to twelve years. Varieties for market: Winesap, Missouri Pippin, Smith's Cider, and Northern Spy; for family use, Winesap, Missouri Pippin, Smith's Cider, Maiden's Blush, and Red June. Have no use whatever for Ben Davis. Prefer bottom land, with black, sandy soil and a southern aspect. Plant good, thrifty two-year-old trees 25×25 feet. I plant corn or potatoes for three or four years, and after that nothing; thoroughly cultivate with the plow, disc, and harrow. I think a windbreak on the south side very essential, and would make it of cottonwood and Russian mulberry, in five rows, alternating, six feet apart. I use soap and turpentine for the borers, and hounds for the rabbits. I believe pruning pays, and makes the fruit much nicer. I use common pruning shears, and prune so that the sun can get in. Never have thinned apples on the trees, but believe it would be a good thing. I believe in fertilizing with stable litter; think it keeps the orchard thrifty and more fruitful. I have never kept any stock in the orchard, but believe it would be advisable and no detriment to pasture with hogs in June and July. Have never sprayed any. I pick from step-ladders into baskets, and sort into three classes: No. 1 are sold in barrels, No. 2 in bulk, and No. 3 go for cider. I have sold a few wagon-loads in the orchard, but I sell my best apples by the bushel late in winter; I usually sell the second-grade apples first, and make the culls into cider. My best market is in the counties north and west of us; have never tried a distant market. Never dried any. For winter we store in barrels, and are successful. The Missouri Pippin and Willow Twig keep best. I irrigate on a small scale. Prices average about one dollar per bushel.
S. S. Dickinson, Larned, Pawnee county: Has lived in Kansas thirty-three years, and has an apple orchard of 1800 trees, planted from seven to fifteen years. For commercial purposes he prefers Missouri Pippin, Winesap, Willow Twig, Ben Davis, and Rome Beauty, and for family use adds early apples. Has tried and discarded Red Winter Pearmain, because of blight. He is located in river bottom, with sandy soil, and a blue clay subsoil. Prefers a north and east slope. Plants two-year-old trees, with heads two feet from the ground, in deep dead furrows. Cultivates until the middle of July with a disc harrow, plow, and weeder. Never ceases cultivation. In the young orchard he plants corn, potatoes, and garden-truck, and would plant the same in a bearing orchard, and cease cropping when the trees got too large. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of any fast growing timber, by planting two rows, six to eight feet apart, and three feet in the row. For borers and rabbits he uses paint, whitewash, and poison. He prunes his trees with a knife and shears, and thins out the tops to let the sun in, and thinks it pays, and is beneficial. He thins the fruit as soon as he sees that it is too thick. His trees are in mixed plantings, and fertilized with all the stable litter he can get. He finds it beneficial, and would advise its use on all soils. Does not pasture his orchard, excepting in late fall and early winter, when he lets the calves run in to tramp the ground, and thinks it advisable. His trees are troubled with canker-worm, bark-louse, and some other insects; and his fruit with codling-moth. He sprays his trees twice before the buds open, with Bordeaux mixture and arsenical solution, for blight; thinks he has reduced the codling-moth. Picks his apples from the trees into sacks, and hauls in a padded wagon box. Sorts them from tables into three classes—extra, good, and medium. Never sells apples in the orchard; wholesales, retails and peddles them. His best market is at home, but he has not enough to fill it. Does not dry any. Is successful in keeping a few apples for winter market in barrels and boxes in a cellar, as near air-tight as possible. They keep well until May 25, and he does not find it necessary to repack stored apples before marketing. He does not irrigate. Prices have been: Wholesale, 60 cents to $1.20 per bushel; retail, 80 cents, $1.40 to $1.60 per bushel. He employs good help at one dollar per day and board.