Chapter D: E. STEVENS, Norton, Norton county: I have resided in the State

eighteen years. Have an apple orchard of 100 trees from ten to fifteen years old, three to six inches in diameter. My orchard should be composed of Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Pewaukee, Jonathan, Willow Twig, Maiden's Blush, Snow and two kinds of Russets (and I haven't a Russet in the orchard!!), Early Harvest, one or two sweets (and I haven't a sweet in the orchard!), which proves to me that an agent will sell you any variety you want, and ship what they happen to have. I prefer bottom land with a loamy soil and a clay subsoil, with a northern slope. I prefer three-year-old, low-top trees, cut back, set in a furrow made with a lister and dug out with a spade. I plant my orchard to corn, using a stirring plow and harrow, and am still cultivating; would plant corn or clover in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of Russian mulberries. For rabbits I wrap with fine meshed wire. I prune my trees with a saw and knife to give sunlight, and make larger fruit; think it pays. I do not thin the fruit while on the trees. My trees are in mixed plantings. I mulch my orchard late in the fall with coarse manure; would advise it on all soils, unless very rich. Feed your soil if you would have thrifty trees. I pasture my orchard with hogs; I think it advisable, and that it pays because they keep the soil loose. Trees are troubled with canker-worm, tent-caterpillar, and borers; and my apples with worms. I do not spray, but ought to. I hand-pick my apples. I dry some for family use. I do not irrigate, but am confident we need more water.

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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.

FRUIT DISTRICT No. 3.

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
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Total in district 397,304 513,633 910,937
Estimated acreage 60,000 100,000 160,000

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