Chapter L: G. MORGAN, Richfield, Morton county: I have lived in Kansas

forty-three years; have an apple orchard of 125 trees, medium size, ten years old. For all purposes I prefer Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and Maiden's Blush. I prefer black loam bottom, with clay subsoil, northern slope. 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 beneficial, and that it pays. I do not thin my fruit while on the trees, but think it would pay. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter; think it beneficial; would advise its use on sandy land. My trees are troubled with flathead borer, and my fruit with codling-moth and curculio. I do not spray. I pick my apples from ladders; pile those taken from eight trees together and cover with hay. Sort into three classes: First, sound and large; second, sound and small; third, spotted. I sell apples in the orchard, also wholesale and retail; pack my best in bushel boxes and sell to grocers. Sell my second and third grades to peddlers and farmers from the west. My best market is at home. Have tried distant markets and found they paid. Am successful in storing apples in bulk in a bank cellar, Winesap and Missouri Pippin keeping the best. Do not irrigate. Good apples sold here this winter for one dollar per bushel. I employ farm hands at farm wages.

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