e. I plant two-year-old trees with small tops, well rooted, in
large holes, and filled in with well-worked soil. I cultivate my orchard
to vines, using a stirring plow and hoe, and cease cropping after six
years, but keep cultivating, and plant nothing in a bearing orchard.
Windbreaks are essential; would make them of forest-trees planted in
hit-and-miss rows around the orchard. Am not troubled with rabbits and
borers. I prune with a saw and knife to give shape; think it beneficial.
I thin apples on the trees as soon as large enough. My trees are in
mixed plantings; Maiden's Blush are surrounded by Pippins and Rambos. I
think they are more fruitful. I do not fertilize. I pasture my orchard
with chickens and turkeys; I think it advisable, to keep out bugs. Trees
are troubled with tent-caterpillar. I pick my apples by hand into
baskets from step-ladders, and sort into three classes, choice, common,
and culls, while gathering. I pack in barrels, placing a layer in the
bottom, mark with paint, and haul to market on a wagon. I sell apples in
the orchard, also retail to merchants; make cider of culls. Richfield is
my best market. Do not dry any. Am successful in storing apples for
winter in boxes and barrels in cellar; find Missouri Pippin and Winesap
keep best. Lose about two per cent. of the stored apples. I irrigate my
trees direct from a well, in ditches running close to the trees. Price
has been one dollar per bushel.

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E. MORGAN, Hutchinson, Reno county: I have lived in Kansas seventeen
years; have sixty acres of apples, from four to sixteen years old. For
commercial orchard I prefer Missouri Pippin, Ben Davis, and Winesap; and
for family orchard Early Harvest, Cooper's Early White, Maiden's Blush,
Jonathan, and Grimes's Golden Pippin. Have tried and discarded Snow and
Early Pennock on account of blight. I prefer river bottom with a clay
subsoil. I plant two-year-old, large, thrifty trees, at the crossings of
furrows made with a lister, twenty by thirty feet. I cultivate for the
first four years to corn and garden-truck, using a Planet jr.
cultivator, then use a one-horse plow for two years, and cease cropping
when bearing begins heavily, and plant nothing. Windbreaks are
essential; would make them of one row of Osage orange, on the west side
of orchard. For rabbits I use tree paint and wood veneers. I prune my
trees in the winter, to produce health and give good form; think it