DICK MAY, Elk, Chase county: Have lived in Kansas since 1860. Have a family apple orchard of sixty trees eighteen years old. I prefer Ben Davis and Winesap, on bottom land with a second slope. I cultivate my orchard fourteen years, using a cultivator, and plant corn in a young orchard and orchard-grass in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; I would make them of timber by planting in groves. For rabbits I wrap the trees; and use soap-suds for borers. I prune with a pruning-knife, and think it pays. I do not thin the fruit while on the trees. I would advise the use of fertilizers on all soils. I do not pasture my orchard; do not think it advisable; it does not pay. My trees are troubled with roundhead borer, and tent-caterpillar. I do not spray. I pick by hand and sort into two classes. I haul to market in a wagon and wholesale them. I have put apples in cold storage and find Winesap and Missouri Pippin keep best and satisfactorily. I have to repack stored apples before marketing. I do not irrigate. Prices have been from fifty cents to one dollar per bushel, and dried apples six cents per pound.
E. O. BEAVERS, Ottumwa, Lyon county: Have been in Kansas twenty-three years. Have 2000 apple trees, from one to twenty-three years planted. Prefer for market Winesap, Mammoth Black Twig, Gano, Ben Davis, and Missouri Pippin; and for family use Winesap, Mammoth Black Twig, Gano, Ben Davis, Jonathan, and Early Harvest. Have tried and discarded Lawver, because they do not hang on until maturity. I prefer a north slope of high, level, bottom land, with black soil and clay subsoil. Plant two-year-old, whole-root, round-topped trees, in large holes dug two feet deep and filled for six inches with surface soil, packed well. Have now in bearing some good seedlings. Grow corn in orchard from eight to ten years, and cultivate the tree rows well with shallow plowing, and harrow and cultivator. After ten years sow to red clover. Want a windbreak of timber on south. Shoot the rabbits. Prune with saw and axe to "get nicer apples," and think it pays exceedingly well. Prefer to plant in blocks of a kind, as they are more fruitful. Use stable litter, but not close up to the trees. Believe it pays to pasture with hogs, if not overstocked. Have canker-worm and codling-moth; spray three times, the first before blooming, for canker-worm. Have surely reduced codling-moth by spraying. Borers never bother any. Pick by hand from common ladders, with sack over shoulder. Sort into three classes: No. 1 perfect, No. 2, and culls. Have a different man to pick out each grade. Use eleven-peck barrels; face two layers, then fill, shake, and press. Usually sell marketable fruit in orchard to shippers. Sell culls by wagon-loads in orchard. My best near-by market is Emporia, Kan. Have shipped to a distant market and made it pay. I have stored some in barrels in cellar, and all kept well, Winesap perhaps a little the better. Prices range from forty to sixty cents per bushel. I employ the best experienced men I can get, and pay one dollar per day of ten hours.