JESSE ROYER, Gove, Gove county: Have lived in Kansas thirteen years. I have four apple trees seven years old. I prefer upland with an eastern or northeast slope. For planting, I prefer good two-year-old trees. I cultivate my orchard all the time; would plant corn, and cultivate with any tool that would do good work and kill the weeds; would not plant any crop in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of any kind of forest-trees excepting walnut; plant two or three rows of them all around the orchard. I prune some to give shape to trees and take out all dead branches, and think it pays. I think a good rich [?] mulching would be beneficial, and would advise its use on all soils. Do not pasture my orchard. I would spray if it was necessary; insects are not very bad here. I do not dry any.
Following is the third fruit district, comprised of thirty-one counties in the southwest quarter of the state. Reports, or rather experiences, from each of these counties will be found immediately following. We give below the number of apple trees in the third district, compiled from the statistics of 1897. Many thousands were added in the spring of 1898.
_Bearing._ _Not bearing._ _Total._ Barber 12,901 16,384 29,285 Barton 25,146 24,196 49,342 Clark 735 1,942 2,677 Comanche 1,010 1,512 2,522 Edwards 3,378 6,672 10,050 Finney 6,139 10,559 16,698 Ford 2,281 4,178 6,459 Grant 852 300 1,152 Gray 410 2,715 3,125 Greeley 10 402 412 Hamilton 741 2,242 2,983 Harper 36,296 20,508 56,804 Haskell 328 141 469 Hodgeman 415 675 1,090 Kearny 4,405 7,312 11,717 Kingman 39,249 23,416 62,765 Kiowa 1,683 2,212 3,895 Lane 1,647 2,524 4,171 Meade 1,340 2,200 3,540 Ness 1,188 1,630 2,818 Pawnee 11,137 7,800 18,937 Pratt 12,894 12,963 25,857 Reno 141,460 280,713 422,173 Rice 65,069 45,133 110,202 Rush 2,118 2,629 4,747 Scott 229 1,936 2,165 Seward 432 602 1,034 Stafford 22,914 27,377 50,291 Stanton 10 150 160 Stevens 897 1,651 2,548 Wichita 90 959 1,049 ------- ------- ------- Total in district 397,304 513,633 910,937 Estimated acreage 60,000 100,000 160,000
D. J. McNEAL, Scott, Scott county: I have lived in Kansas ten years; have an apple orchard of sixty-five trees five years old, seven feet high. I prefer a clay soil with a north aspect. I plant two-year-old trees in ground that has been plowed for two years before planting. I cultivate my orchard with a disc harrow and cultivator, and plant nothing. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of cottonwoods. I rub rabbits' blood on the trees to protect them from other rabbits. I prune my trees with a knife and a fine saw; I think it beneficial. I have fertilized my orchard with stable litter, but it causes a too rapid growth; I would not advise its use on all soils. I do not pasture my orchard; it is not advisable; it does not pay. I am not troubled with insects, and do not spray. I do not irrigate, but think it would pay.
