rade-mark
is put on the barrel with stencil or rubber stamp. No. 1's and 2's are
hauled to shipping station in barrels; culls in bulk in ordinary farm
wagon. We have never sold our crop in the orchard; always preferred to
have it picked and packed under our own supervision. Our apples have
been sold in car lots. Firsts and seconds have gone to wholesale
dealers. Culls we have evaporated, sold to men who evaporate, to
cider-mills, and to dealers who handle bulk apples.

For drying, we use the New York hop kiln, Rival No. 2 parers, and
upright bleachers, all of which have been reasonably satisfactory. We
believe them the best we can get, considering the class of evaporated
fruit in demand. White stock is best handled in fifty-pound boxes;
chops, peelings and cores in sacks. We always found a ready market for
dried fruit. Some years it paid well.

We have wintered only in cold-storage plants, always in barrels, and it
has been profitable. Ben Davis and Winesap have kept best, with Missouri
Pippin a close second. Jonathan keeps well under proper conditions. If
kept as late as March, it is generally necessary to repack, but not
always. Our greatest loss has been on Jonathan, which in some instances,
when kept late in the season, has reached ten per cent.

We have never irrigated or watered any part of our orchards.

Prices have ranged as follows with us: For No. 1, from $1.50 to $4; and
No. 2, 90 cents to $2 per barrel. Culls have brought from 25 cents to 60
cents per 100 pounds; evaporated apples from 4 to 13 cents per pound;
all these free on board.

* * * * *

A. E. HOUGHTON, Weltbote, Washington county: I have lived in Kansas
twenty-nine years; have 100 apple trees, fifteen years old, twelve
inches in diameter. For commercial and family orchards, I prefer Ben
Davis, Winesap, Rawle's Janet, Huntman's Favorite, Grimes's Golden
Pippin, Rambo, and Jonathan. Have tried and discarded Dominie, Roman
Stem, and Bellflower; the latter on account of shy bearing. Think bottom
land, black, rich loam, and north aspect, the best. I prefer
three-year-old, short, stout-bodied trees--the shorter the better--with
limbs as low as they will grow. I cultivate my orchard to corn, potatoes
or vines as long as it is possible to do the work. I use a plow,
cultivator, and one-horse double-shovel plow. I cease cropping when they
begin to bear, and plant to clover. I consider windbreaks essential;
would not grow