do not thin my apples while on the tree, but think it
would pay. My trees are in mixed plantings; my Ben Davis are fuller and
redder planted close by Jonathan and Winesap. I do not fertilize my
orchard, but think it would be beneficial, and would advise its use on
all exhausted soils in old orchards. Do not pasture my orchard; would
not advise it, don't think it would pay. My trees are troubled with
flathead borers, and my apples with curculio. I do not spray. I dig
borers out with a knife.

Pick my apples by hand; have light-weight men climb the trees and pick
in meal sacks, then lay on tables. Sort into two classes: First,
perfect, well colored, smooth, and good size; second, wormy, fair, and
small size. Pack in three-bushel barrels, well rounded up; mark the
variety of apples on the barrel with a stencil; haul to market on a
hay-frame wagon. I sell in the orchard, wholesale, retail, and peddle;
sell the best to highest bidder; sell the culls to driers or ship South
or West. My best markets are where apples are scarcest. Do not dry any;
it does not pay. Don't store any; I have to repack stored apples before
marketing, losing about one-twelfth of them. Do not irrigate. Prices
have been from $2 to $2.75 per barrel; dried apples, five cents per
pound. I employ men at seventy-five cents per day. Apple-growing in
Kansas, on high prairie land, is not very profitable to the grower,
unless he has a good windbreak on south and west sides of his orchard.
In 1880 I planted twenty acres of apples trees of many varieties; Ben
Davis and Jonathan were the only ones that paid me on high land. In 1895
I planted thirty acres to apples; fifteen acres on upland and fifteen
acres on second bottom, sloping east and north. On the upland I put
nothing but Ben Davis and Jonathan; on the bottom I planted Ben Davis,
Missouri Pippin, Mammoth Black Twig, Gano, Winesap, and
Jonathan--cross-fertilizing the Ben Davis every fifth row with the
Mammoth Black Twig, Jonathan, and Winesap. I believe that
cross-fertilization is beneficial to an orchard in making fruit more
plentiful, larger, smoother, better color and quality. It is believed by
many that Ben Davis, Jonathan and Winesap are self-fertilizers, and
don't require crossing; that being the case, they should have the cross
near by, in order to not decrease the species or run it out. Professor
Darwin says self-fertilization is abhorrent to nature, and the same rule
that applies to small fruits is e