aring. I prefer hilltop or bottom with a porous subsoil which is
reasonably rich. My trees planted on hard-pan are dying. I prefer
two-year-old, straight, thrifty trees, planted in land prepared as for
corn. I cultivate my orchard to corn (once to broom-corn) as long as the
corn does well, using a double shovel and a twelve-inch plow. I sow
bearing orchard to oats, one bushel to the acre, and let stand. Cease
cropping after seven or eight years. To protect the trees from rabbits I
wrap with long grass. I prune some to form heads two or three feet from
the ground, and cut all watersprouts with a knife; but do little of this
until the trees are twelve years planted. Have thinned apples on trees;
it does not pay. My trees are in mixed plantings. I fertilize my orchard
with all the barn-yard litter I can get, and think it beneficial. A
neighbor fertilizes his orchard very heavily and receives splendid
crops. I pasture six acres of my orchard with hogs; they keep it well
cultivated; have not thought it an injury yet. No orchard ought to be
seeded to grass in this county. My trees are troubled with canker-worm,
tent-caterpillar, and leaf-crumpler; my apples with codling-moth and
gouger. I sprayed twice last year with London purple, one or two pounds
[?] to a barrel of water, before and after they blossomed; it was an
utter failure. When the worms appeared I increased the amount to three
pounds to the barrel, without any effect. [This must have been poor
London purple.--Sec.] I gather my apples in sacks with a hoop in the
open end; then put on the sorting table, using bushel boxes and a wagon
with a plank platform to haul them on. I sort into three classes:
firsts, seconds, and culls. Sell firsts in orchard to Ryan & Richardson;
sell second and third grades to teams. Make cider of the culls and those
we cannot sell. My best markets are north and northwest. I never dry
any. I store from 5 to 700 bushels in a basement under granary, and am
fairly successful; find Ben Davis and Rawle's Janet keep best. Do not
irrigate. Prices have been from twenty-five to seventy-five cents per
bushel. I employ men, and pay from fifty cents to one dollar per day.

* * * * *

THEODORE OLSEN, Green, Clay county: I have lived in Kansas thirty years.
Have an apple orchard of 200 trees, fifteen feet high, eighteen years
old. I prefer for commercial purposes Ben Davis and Winesap, on second
bottom, black soil, with a nort