and York Imperial. Have tried and discarded Bellflower,
Dominie, Pennsylvania Red Streak, and White Winter Pearmain. I prefer
hilltop with a mulatto limestone soil, northeast aspect. Would plant
two-year-old trees, forty feet apart. I plant my orchard to corn and
potatoes for five years, using a cultivator; cease cropping after six
years; plant nothing in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; I
would make them of trees, planted on the south, west, and north. I prune
with a knife and saw; think it beneficial. I thin the fruit on my trees
the latter part of May, and think it pays. My trees are in mixed
plantings. I fertilize my orchard; think it beneficial and that it pays.
Pasture my orchard very little, late in the fall, with horses; think it
advisable and that it pays. My trees are troubled with canker-worm,
tent-caterpillar, bud moth, root aphis, bagworm, flathead borer,
roundhead borer, woolly aphis, twig-borer, and oyster-shell bark-louse;
and my apples with codling-moth. I spray with London purple, using a
force-pump, and think I have reduced the codling-moth. Those insects not
affected by spraying I dig out with knife and wire. I hand-pick my
apples from a step-ladder into a sack with a hoop in the mouth. Sort
into three classes: first, second, and third; pack by hand in
three-bushel barrel, mark with stencil, and ship by rail. I sell my
apples in the orchard, wholesale and retail. Sell my best ones to apple
dealers. Sell my second- and third-grade apples at the stores; make
vinegar of the culls. I have dried apples with an American dryer with
satisfaction; after dry, pack in barrels; we find a ready market for
them and think it pays. I store apples for winter in bulk in a cave and
am successful; I find York Imperial and Rawle's Janet keep best. We have
to repack stored apples before marketing, losing about twenty per cent.
of them. I do not irrigate. I get six cents per pound for dried apples.
I employ men at $1.25 per day.

In the growing of apples in Kansas many things are to be well
considered. That injunction of Davy Crockett's must be kept constantly
in view to be successful: "Be sure you're right, then go ahead." First,
to select varieties that are well adapted to your soil; next, location;
last but not least, the preparation of the soil and future care. Many of
the varieties that are well adapted to the Eastern states are
unprofitable here. Another great mistake is the planting of too many
varieties