eceive the roots, and plant
healthy two-year-old trees, trained to a switch, so that I can train the
top to suit. Have tried root grafts and seedlings; both have done well.
I cultivate while the trees are young, and use only harrow and
mowing-machine after they begin to bear. I plant any hoed crop among the
trees while young, and cease when the trees begin to bear. I think
windbreaks essential, and use maple, box-elder, and Scotch pine. For
rabbits I use traps and shot-gun. I use a knife for the borers. I prune
when the tree needs it; use the saw on large trees and the knife on
small trees. I thin the fruit sometimes when it sets too thickly, as
soon as it shows, and it pays most emphatically. I cannot see any
difference in trees whether set in blocks or mixed up. I use some
barn-yard fertilizer, and think it beneficial; would advise its use as
the trees begin to bear. I pasture my orchard with pigs and poultry;
think it advisable, and think it pays.

My trees are troubled with bud moth, flathead borer, and twig-borer;
some seasons I also have leaf-roller and leaf-crumpler. The codling-moth
troubles my apples. I spray some to destroy these insects, with indigo
and London purple, using a pump. I do not know that I have reduced the
codling-moth any. For borer I form a basin around the tree and fill with
water, repeating several times; I sometimes pick them. I use an ordinary
fruit ladder, and sack with ends tied together and swung over the
shoulder. I make but one class, viz., market all the perfect apples. I
carefully put in a fruit-house and let stay a week or so, then carefully
sort over by removing all unsound or faulty ones. I do not ship. I have
a good market at home. I never sell in the orchard; usually market in
bushel boxes. I usually feed second- or third-class fruit to hogs. My
best market is Concordia. Have never tried distant markets. I have never
dried any apples. I store some for winter use in an ordinary cellar; am
successful, and find Winesap, Rawle's Janet and Missouri Pippin keep the
best. We have to repack after storing, and lose about one-third. I do
not irrigate. Winesap, Missouri Pippin and Rawle's Janet usually sell at
one dollar per bushel; Ben Davis, at seventy-five cents per bushel.

* * * * *

C. C. GARDINER, Bradford, Wabaunsee county: Have lived in Kansas
thirty-nine years, in this county fourteen years; have 750 apple trees
ten years planted. For commercial o