t think it advisable; it does not pay. My
trees are troubled with roundhead borers, and my apples with
codling-moth and tree-cricket. I spray, after the blossom falls, with
London purple. Pick apples into a sack over the shoulder from a slide
ladder; sort under the tree, and put the best in crates made to hold one
bushel level full; we let them remain in the shade of the tree until
danger of freezing; then sort and store in the cellar, one box on top of
another. I sell apples in the orchard, wholesale and retail to customers
in Topeka; make cider of the second and third grades, and give the culls
to hogs. Topeka is my best market. Have tried distant markets, but they
do not always pay. I do not dry any. I am successful in storing apples
in bushel crates. I find Rawle's Janet and Winesap keep best. I have to
repack stored apples before marketing, losing about one-fifth of them. I
do not irrigate. Prices have been from thirty cents to one dollar per
bushel.

* * * * *

M. SANDERS, Broughton, Clay county: I have lived in Kansas thirty-eight
years. Have an apple orchard of 400 trees, three to ten inches in
diameter. For market I prefer Ben Davis, Winesap, Grimes's Golden
Pippin, and Red Astrachan; and for family orchard Ben Davis, Winesap,
and Missouri Pippin. I prefer bottom land having a sandy subsoil, and a
southeast slope. I prefer two-year-old, low-headed trees. In the spring
I open deep furrows both ways with a plow, and plant the trees at the
cross, fill the hole with good soil. I cultivate my orchard for six or
eight years, using a common plow till four years old, then use a shovel
plow, and plant early corn, potatoes, etc., in the young orchard; cease
cropping after six or eight years; plant nothing in a bearing orchard,
but keep up shallow cultivating with a disc or plow. Windbreaks are
essential; I would make them of three rows of box-elder or Osage orange.
I prune with a small saw or knife, to thin the top. I fertilize my
orchard with yard litter and ashes, scattering it all over the ground;
would advise it on all soils. I have pastured my orchard with hogs, but
have quit it. I now pasture with cows; I tie their heads down, but do
not think it advisable; it does not pay. My trees are troubled with
tent-caterpillar, bud moth, and twig-borers, and my apples with
codling-moth. I do not spray. I pick my apples by hand in a basket, and
sort into two classes. Sell my apples to storekeep