Joseph Bainum, Langdon, Reno county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-five years. Have an apple orchard of twenty trees, most of them ten years old. For market I prefer Missouri Pippin and Winesap, and for family would add Early Pennock and Maiden's Blush. Ben Davis would not do any good for me. I prefer bottom or table land with a heavy subsoil and a northern slope. I prefer two-year-old trees with low heads, set in a ditch. I cultivate my orchard to corn as long as I can get in with a plow; I also use a disc and harrow. I cease cropping when the trees need all the moisture; do not plant anything in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of mulberry trees, set thirty or forty feet away from the orchard. For rabbits I use axle grease and sulphur mixed. I prune, leaving the tops low, and thin out the branches so as to give air and produce larger fruit; it has paid me. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter but do not put it close to the trees; I think it beneficial, and would advise its use on all soils. I have pastured my orchard with cattle and hogs; do not think it advisable; it does not pay. Trees are troubled with flathead borer and leaf-roller, and my apples with codling-moth. I have sprayed, but not lately, with London purple for codling-moth, just after the blossoms fell; it did not pay—did not reduce the codling-moth any. I go after insects not affected by spraying with a small wire. I pick my apples by hand in half-bushel baskets; sort into three classes—largest and sound, second best, and cider. I wholesale, retail, and peddle, and make the culls into cider and vinegar. Never have tried distant markets. I dry some with a Stutzman dryer; it is satisfactory. I pack them in cracker boxes and find a ready market for them at times; it does not pay. Am successful in storing apples two feet deep in bins, one above another, in a cellar walled up with rock; never tried any excepting Missouri Pippin and Winesap. I have to repack stored apples before marketing, losing about five per cent. I irrigate my orchard with water pumped into a reservoir 80×120 feet, and three feet deep. Prices have been from 50 cents to $1.25 per bushel; dried apples, ten cents per pound. I employ women at fifty cents per day.
A. S. Drake, Bucklin, Ford county: Have lived in Kansas twenty years, and have 330 apple trees from three to eleven years old, part of them ten inches in diameter. I prefer good keeping apples for family use. I prefer bottom land, subirrigated, with a north and east slope. I prefer two-year-old trees, set the same depth as they grow in the nursery. I cultivate my orchard from three to eight years, in potatoes, with a plow and harrow; I plant nothing in a bearing orchard, and cease cropping when they shade the ground. Windbreaks are essential where orchards are exposed. I would make them of forest-trees. I protect from rabbits by wrapping with poultry wire. I dig borers out. I prune very little, just enough to stop top growth; I think it has been beneficial. I thin my apples when the limbs are unable to support them. I mulch only to hold back the bloom. I do not pasture my orchard. Borers trouble my trees. My apples are not troubled with insects. I pick my apples by hand, and put them carefully into a basket. I sort into two classes: first, sound and smooth; second, unsound. I do this work by hand. I pack in barrels, pressed full. My best market is at home; we eat and cook the best, and the culls I donate to the children. I never dry any. I store some in barrels, and am successful. I find those I keep from the family keep best. [?] The prevailing price has been one dollar per bushel. I employ men by the month.
Fred Moore, Great Bend, Barton county: I have lived in Kansas twelve years. Have 200 apple trees from one to sixteen years old. For family orchard I prefer Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and Maiden's Blush. I prefer bottom land, with north slope. I cultivate every year with stirring plow and harrow; plant nothing; think windbreaks essential, made of forest-trees. I wrap my trees with rags to protect from rabbits. I prune with a saw to thin the branches. I never thin apples. I fertilize with stable litter. My trees are troubled with flathead borers. Worms trouble my apples. I do not spray. I dig borers out with a knife, in August and September. Price has been fifty cents per bushel.
W. G. Osborne, Medicine Lodge, Barber county: Have lived in Kansas since 1865. Have 150 apple trees, from two to fourteen years planted. I prefer root grafts, and plant in rows twenty to twenty-five feet each way. I cultivate in corn, using a plow. Keep rabbits down with hounds. I prune with a knife. I fertilize with barn-yard litter. Do not spray or irrigate.
Joseph Lewis, Bluff City, Harper county: I have been in Kansas twenty-two years; have an orchard of 1000 trees; the first were set in 1881. The varieties are Missouri Pippin, Ben Davis and Winesap for market, and Duchess of Oldenburg, Maiden's Blush and English Rambo for family use. I prefer bottom land, of level, sandy loam. I plant two-year-old thrifty trees in rows two rods apart. I grow nothing in the orchard, and never cease cultivating with a stirring plow, disc, and harrow. I believe windbreaks are essential in this county, and would make them of any thrifty forest-tree; Russian mulberry is good. I would put double rows around the orchard. I prune with shears and saw to thin the tops. I never use any fertilizer, and never allow stock in the orchard. Am troubled some with the flat-headed borer, which I remove with a knife. I spray with London purple just as the bloom begins to fall. I pick by hand, and sell in the orchard and otherwise; never dried any. I store for winter market in a cave in bulk, and am successful. The best keepers I find are Limber Twig, Striped Vandevere, and Ben Davis. Prices prevailing have been fifty cents per bushel; dried apples, from five to seven cents per pound.