seconds. I have a culler that holds one barrel.
I sort into a barrel, throwing the culls into another barrel, and I
afterward sort the culls, for seconds; I pack in eleven-peck barrels,
full and pressed solid, marked with the name of the variety written on
the barrel. I sell the best at wholesale in barrels, the second grade by
car-loads in bulk; the culls I give away, feed to hogs and cows, and
make into cider. My best market is East and North. Have never shipped
more than 500 or 600 miles away, and it paid. Have never dried any, and
only store in barrels in my barn until I get a sale for them, never
later than December. Price in the orchards in 1896 was seventy-five
cents per barrel; in 1897, one dollar and a half. I use men for picking,
at one dollar per day and their dinner.

* * * * *

F. W. DIXON, Holton, Jackson county: Has been in Kansas twenty-seven
years; has an apple orchard of 6000 trees, set from three to twenty-five
years. Grows and recommends for commercial orchard: Ben Davis, Missouri
Pippin, Jonathan, Winesap, and Gano. For family orchard: Winesap, Ben
Davis, Jonathan, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Maiden's Blush, and Rawle's
Janet. Has tried and discarded Yellow Transparent, Early Harvest, Red
June, Wagener, Willow Twig, Dominie, Roman Stem, Seek-no-further,
Porter, Pound Sweet, Nyack Pippin, and Minkler, because they did not
pay; some blighted and failed to bear. Prefer timber soil, or sandy loam
with open clay subsoil; bottom land is good if it has not a hard-pan
subsoil. Apples will not succeed well planted on ordinary sod, with
impervious subsoil. Plant thrifty two-year-old trees, from four to six
feet high, well branched. Cultivate as long as the tree lives; use
turning plow in spring, and follow with harrow every week during summer
until orchard comes into bearing; then get some tool that will stir the
ground two to three inches deep, and cultivate often. Cultivation pays
better than fertilizer or anything else. He grows small fruit among the
trees, but believes corn the best crop up to eight or nine years; then
grows nothing. Does not think windbreaks essential, and would have none
on the east or north; would not object to windbreak of Russian mulberry,
or other hardy trees, on south and west. For rabbits, he wraps the
trees, and keeps two good beagle hounds. Does not prune, except to keep
watersprouts off, and cuts out limbs that cross. Thinks the wind thins
the fruit