F. F. Hansberry, Larned, Pawnee county: Have resided in Kansas twenty-three years. Have 1400 apple trees nine years planted. For market, Ben Davis, Winesap, Red Edgar (?), Haas, and for family orchard Ben Davis, Winesap, Maiden's Blush, and Whitney (crab) No. 20. I have discarded the Missouri Pippin, as the tree is too short-lived. I prefer second bottom, with sandy soil and clay subsoil; always choose north or northeast aspect. I always plant good one-year-old trees, twenty by thirty feet apart, putting Missouri Pippins between the wide way, to be cut out later on. I grow and graft all my trees. Cultivate with a disc cultivator until the trees come into full bearing; after that every second year. I grow no crop in the orchard. I believe windbreaks are essential on south side; I think mulberry trees best, and would plant a double row two feet apart, in rows four feet apart, the nearest row forty feet away from apple trees. I shoot and trap the rabbits. I only prune enough to keep the tree well balanced. I often thin Winesaps on the tree because I think they need it, and it pays. I believe in mixed plantings, and therefore plant Ben Davis among all the others. I spread stable litter among my trees after they come into bearing; sandy soil, I think, requires the most fertilizer. I pasture in a small way, putting my little calves in, in the spring. Am only bothered with a few codling-moth and flat-headed borers. I do not spray, but I make way with all the fallen fruit. I hunt borers and kill with a wire. Pick by hand as soon as well colored; sort into two classes; the best is first, and all sound smaller fruit second. We pack in barrels by hand, marking with the variety and class. We sell ours all at home; usually they are engaged before they are picked. Our second grade we keep at home; culls are made into cider. Our apples are sold in Dodge City and Larned. Have never shipped any; have never dried any. I store some second grade in barrels and bulk in the cellar, and find that Missouri Pippins, Ben Davis, and Winesaps keep the best, and I do not lose over three per cent. Some seasons I irrigate, with windmills. Prices vary from 75 cents to $1.25 per bushel.
L. G. Morgan, Richfield, Morton county: I have lived in Kansas forty-three years; have an apple orchard of 125 trees, medium size, ten years old. For all purposes I prefer Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and Maiden's Blush. I prefer black loam bottom, with clay subsoil, northern slope. I plant two-year-old trees with small tops, well rooted, in large holes, and filled in with well-worked soil. I cultivate my orchard to vines, using a stirring plow and hoe, and cease cropping after six years, but keep cultivating, and plant nothing in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of forest-trees planted in hit-and-miss rows around the orchard. Am not troubled with rabbits and borers. I prune with a saw and knife to give shape; think it beneficial. I thin apples on the trees as soon as large enough. My trees are in mixed plantings; Maiden's Blush are surrounded by Pippins and Rambos. I think they are more fruitful. I do not fertilize. I pasture my orchard with chickens and turkeys; I think it advisable, to keep out bugs. Trees are troubled with tent-caterpillar. I pick my apples by hand into baskets from step-ladders, and sort into three classes, choice, common, and culls, while gathering. I pack in barrels, placing a layer in the bottom, mark with paint, and haul to market on a wagon. I sell apples in the orchard, also retail to merchants; make cider of culls. Richfield is my best market. Do not dry any. Am successful in storing apples for winter in boxes and barrels in cellar; find Missouri Pippin and Winesap keep best. Lose about two per cent. of the stored apples. I irrigate my trees direct from a well, in ditches running close to the trees. Price has been one dollar per bushel.
E. Morgan, Hutchinson, Reno county: I have lived in Kansas seventeen years; have sixty acres of apples, from four to sixteen years old. For commercial orchard I prefer Missouri Pippin, Ben Davis, and Winesap; and for family orchard Early Harvest, Cooper's Early White, Maiden's Blush, Jonathan, and Grimes's Golden Pippin. Have tried and discarded Snow and Early Pennock on account of blight. I prefer river bottom with a clay subsoil. I plant two-year-old, large, thrifty trees, at the crossings of furrows made with a lister, twenty by thirty feet. I cultivate for the first four years to corn and garden-truck, using a Planet jr. cultivator, then use a one-horse plow for two years, and cease cropping when bearing begins heavily, and plant nothing. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of one row of Osage orange, on the west side of orchard. For rabbits I use tree paint and wood veneers. I prune my trees in the winter, to produce health and give good form; think it beneficial, and that it pays. I do not thin my fruit while on the trees, but think it would pay. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter; think it beneficial; would advise its use on sandy land. My trees are troubled with flathead borer, and my fruit with codling-moth and curculio. I do not spray. I pick my apples from ladders; pile those taken from eight trees together and cover with hay. Sort into three classes: First, sound and large; second, sound and small; third, spotted. I sell apples in the orchard, also wholesale and retail; pack my best in bushel boxes and sell to grocers. Sell my second and third grades to peddlers and farmers from the west. My best market is at home. Have tried distant markets and found they paid. Am successful in storing apples in bulk in a bank cellar, Winesap and Missouri Pippin keeping the best. Do not irrigate. Good apples sold here this winter for one dollar per bushel. I employ farm hands at farm wages.
C. H. Longstreth, Lakin, Kearny county: Have lived in Kansas twenty-nine years. I have 3400 apple trees—500 eleven years old, 1200 eight years old, 700 six years old, and 1000 set this spring. For market I prefer Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, and Winesap. For family use I would advise Early Harvest, Red June, Maiden's Blush, Chenango Strawberry, Smith's Cider, Huntsman's Favorite, Rome Beauty, Jonathan, Ben Davis, Winesap, and Missouri Pippin. Have discarded the Red Astrachan, Willow Twig, and Cooper's Early White, as they will not bear. I prefer second bottom, not too high or too low; sandy loam, with loose clay subsoil; any slope is good, north preferred. I prefer small-sized, well rooted, two-year-old trees, planted with a spade, in deeply plowed, thoroughly prepared ground, and would cultivate until they die of old age. I use a sixteen-inch disc, Acme harrow, Thomas's smoothing harrow, and Barnes's weeder. I grow small fruit and vegetables among the trees until of bearing age. Would plant windbreaks of six or eight rows of North Carolina poplars, honey and black locust, Russian mulberry, white ash, and box-elder, one-year seedlings, two feet apart, in rows four feet apart, on the north and south side of orchard. For rabbits, I wrap my trees as soon as possible after planting. I prune with a knife to admit sun and air, and to keep down suckers and limbs that rub each other. I thin all through the season, taking out imperfect fruit as far as possible, and it pays. I don't think it necessary to mix varieties to insure fruitfulness, yet this spring I planted 1000 Missouri Pippins, filling every sixth row with Winesaps for a test. The varieties I have discarded as not bearing were thoroughly mixed in with other kinds. I would use no fertilizers unless on very thin soil, and then would prefer to use before planting. I use fertilizers after the trees come into bearing, but up to bearing age good, thorough cultivation in the early part of the season is all that I would give. I do not pasture orchards; it might be advisable to turn hogs in to eat up windfalls affected with codling-moth, but never any other stock.
Am troubled only with root aphis, codling-moth, and curculio. I spray right after the blossoms fall with London purple, for codling-moth, and have reduced them to a great extent. Have prevented borers by wrapping. I contemplate using kerosene emulsion on curculio and insects that I cannot reach with poison. I pick in canvas lined half-bushel baskets, and sort into firsts, seconds, and culls, carefully, by hand. I pack in boxes, if I can get them; have used barrels well shaken and pressed down, marked with stencil, and shipped by rail. Denver has been our best market thus far; sometimes I have sold most of my apples in the orchard; never have to peddle any. I feed the culls to my hogs. Never dry any, but think I will try it in the near future, as there is a good home market for a large part of them. Have stored a good many in cellar in barrels and in bulk; some I have buried. I don't like either plan, and am figuring to put up some kind of cold-storage building for future use. Winesap, Missouri Pippin, and Ben Davis, in the order named, have kept best for me, my losses being about one-fifth. I irrigate by flooding the ground all over thoroughly when necessary. Prices have ranged from 75 cents to $1.25 per bushel; from $2.50 to $3 per barrel. I use the best men I can get, and pay $1 a day and board, or $1.50 per day without board.
A. W. Switzer, Hutchinson, Reno county: Have lived in Kansas twenty-six years; have 2000 apple trees twelve, fifteen and eighteen years old. Winesap, Missouri Pippin and Ben Davis for market purposes; Maiden's Blush, Rambo and Roman Stem added for family use. Have discarded Limber Twig and Willow Twig, both subject to blight. I prefer bottom land, sandy loam soil, and sandy subsoil; north slope is best. Plant two-year-old, low-headed trees, in holes large enough to receive all the roots without crowding, one inch deeper than in the nursery. Plant to corn until five or six years of age; then nothing. Plow and cultivate both ways to kill the weeds. I believe windbreaks are a necessity, and should be made of trees planted two or three rods wide, four feet apart, on the south side. Wrap the trees with straw or hay to protect from rabbits and borers. I prune with a saw to thin out where too thick, and to keep down the watersprouts; it certainly pays. I use stable litter and old hay in the orchard for fertilizer. Do not think it pays or is advisable to pasture orchard. I spray when the bloom begins to fall, three times for codling-moth, with London purple and Paris green, and I am satisfied I have reduced them. For the borer I use a knife and a wire. I pick in baskets, and pile in long rows in the orchard. I sort into two classes, and sell the best in the orchard to men who haul them west. The culls go for cider. I do not irrigate, and I do not dry or store any apples. Prices have varied from twenty-five cents to one dollar per bushel. I use common farm labor at fifteen to eighteen dollars per month.