Part 13 (1/2)

Prices have ranged as follows with us: For No. 1, from $1.50 to $4; and No. 2, 90 cents to $2 per barrel. Culls have brought from 25 cents to 60 cents per 100 pounds; evaporated apples from 4 to 13 cents per pound; all these free on board.

A. E. HOUGHTON, Weltbote, Was.h.i.+ngton county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-nine years; have 100 apple trees, fifteen years old, twelve inches in diameter. For commercial and family orchards, I prefer Ben Davis, Winesap, Rawle's Janet, Huntman's Favorite, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Rambo, and Jonathan. Have tried and discarded Dominie, Roman Stem, and Bellflower; the latter on account of shy bearing. Think bottom land, black, rich loam, and north aspect, the best. I prefer three-year-old, short, stout-bodied trees--the shorter the better--with limbs as low as they will grow. I cultivate my orchard to corn, potatoes or vines as long as it is possible to do the work. I use a plow, cultivator, and one-horse double-shovel plow. I cease cropping when they begin to bear, and plant to clover. I consider windbreaks essential; would not grow an orchard without one, and would use Osage orange, ash, Russian mulberry, or box-elder, planted in several rows on south and west.

I wrap my trees with corn-stalks to protect from rabbits, and wash them with strong soapsuds, for borers, in May and June. I prune a great deal to let the sun, light and air in; I think it beneficial and that it pays. I never thin; but think it would be beneficial when the apples are large enough to tell the good ones from the bad. I think it advisable to use fertilizers on poor land. I never pasture my orchard under any circ.u.mstances whatever: do not think it advisable. My trees are bothered with borers. Some worm troubles my apples. I do not spray.

I pick into a sack over the shoulder, as for sowing wheat. I sort into two cla.s.ses as I pick, to avoid handling again, putting the sound, hand-picked in one pile and the windfalls in another; cover them with hay and let them stay out as long as I dare, then put them in the cellar; but the cellar is too warm; think an outdoor cellar or cave would be better; would like to put them in cold storage, which is far the best. I sell my apples in the orchard, or any way I can get the most for them; generally take them to town and sell them. I sell my second and third grades at home; feed the culls to the hogs. My best markets are Was.h.i.+ngton and Greenleaf. I have never tried distant markets. Never dry any. I store some apples in boxes, barrels, and bulk; am not very successful. I find that Winesap and Rawle's Janet keep best. I do not irrigate. Prices have been from fifty to seventy-five cents per bushel.

There is not much sale for dried apples. We do most of our own work.

EDWIN TAYLOR, Delaware towns.h.i.+p, Wyandotte county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-seven years. Have about 5000 apple trees aged from eight to twelve years. The best varieties of apples for commercial orchards are not many. No one variety could be named which would be best for all locations or conditions. The Ben Davis is most largely planted in the West. Jonathan, Missouri Pippin, Willow Twig, Park's Keeper, are all valuable sorts. There are others. A family orchard is the most important orchard a farmer plants. It should contain a small number of trees and a large number of varieties. Two of a kind are a plenty. There should be at least twenty kinds. That will allow for a new variety to ripen in its season every two weeks or less in summer and fall and every three weeks during the winter. They should begin with the earliest and finish with the very longest keeper. These varieties will overlap, so that the farmer will almost always have two sorts to choose from. There should be sweet apples among them--particularly winter sweets.

The names, characteristics, qualities, description, etc., of the twenty to thirty varieties that make up an ideal orchard would require a long chapter, if the subject was fully treated. Beginners in tree buying should be cautioned not to let the nurseryman run in half a dozen trees of each kind for the family orchard on them. Two trees of a kind are plenty, particularly as the surplus of the family orchard commonly goes to waste. The names should be carefully registered, so there will be no wondering what an apple is when it begins to bear. You can't keep company satisfactorily with an apple that you don't know the name of, any better than you can an unknown man.

The best place to keep these family apples is in a dugout, in the side of a bank if possible, at all events good and deep, with the door at the north, and a good blow-hole in the south end. I don't know much about soils or location. I found myself in possession of some Kaw river timbered hills, clay soil carrying some sand; not good for much else; so I planted them--tops, sides, and draws--with apple trees, which have done well on the tops of the hills, sides of the hills, and in the valleys between the hills. Am inclined to suspect there is a great deal of gammon written about ”slope” and ”expanse” for orchards. My conclusion is that that is a good slope which you happen to have. Trees growing in the Kaw bottoms themselves, I observe, thrive and bear. The only cultivation I have ever given trees has been such as they got by being component parts of a corn-field, except that I have mainly given the tree rows extra cultivation, keeping them clean of gra.s.s and weeds.

My orchards are now seeded to clover; clover is not valuable, for its own sake, among trees, but the trees thrive with it. Its greatest use, so far as I can see, is to make you mow the orchard where it is twice during the season. I prefer to stop cultivation in orchards when they are six years old.

I have no knowledge of windbreaks, but I have had a great deal of ”mechanical destruction” done by borers and rabbits. Both these pests are good ”mechanics” in their way and willing to work. I have the borers hunted spring and fall. Small trees I have protected from rabbits by stalks, paper, or veneering. Rabbits are not hard to head off, but they won't let a case go by default. Some people depend upon traps, dogs, guns, poison, cats, washes, wagon grease and liver to keep the rabbits away. I have known all of these to fail, but I have never known a tree well tied up with corn-stalks to suffer from ”mechanical destruction”

via the rabbit route, unless the string broke. There is no law against having a good string. The only pruning I have ever done has been to take out water sprouts. I don't know whether it paid or not. But I like the looks of a tree better without the pompadour effect a top full of sprouts gives it. Never have thinned apples; orchards here are self-thinners. By picking time the fruit is fully half on the ground and commonly not too much on the trees. Have never used manure or any fertilizer on apple trees. I never pastured an orchard but once. One trial cured me. I judge that one trial is nearly always enough. It is not advisable to pasture orchards, not even with hogs. The greatest pest we have is the apple worm--son, I am told, of the codling-moth. Have made no effort to check it by spraying, or otherwise.

I pick apples by hand; drop them into a sack hung over the shoulder; when the sack is full, it is emptied onto a sorting table. Make two cla.s.ses of fruit: No. 1 and culls. Have never used any package but the barrel. Prefer the full-sized flour barrel. Fill barrel full enough to prevent rattling, when head is pressed in; mark faced head with variety, quality, and my name and address. Have never sold crop in orchard; often sell culls there. Have never sold a greater amount than one car-load at one time; have sold as little as one peck. The best market is sometimes at one place, sometimes at another. Minneapolis is the most distant market I have ever tried. Have mostly put my apples in cold storage.

About one time out of three they have kept well. The fault was not in the apples; cold storage is either not understood or frequently mismanaged. Cold-storage people should be made to guarantee their work!--should not be paid for apples that are not delivered in the spring. Cold-storage rates (fifty cents per barrel) are absurdly high. I use male help, young and old, good and bad. Help commonly hard to get here in the fall. Wages ordinarily one dollar per day, without board.

C. D. MARTINDALE, Scranton, Osage county: I have been on this place thirteen years, and since coming here have set every tree now on it.

Trees that I set out in the spring of 1885 measure six to ten inches in diameter. In 1895 I put out 350 apple trees; in 1896 I planted 250 more, part of them were three- and four-year-old, when set. I lost only thirteen out of the 600. A few of the Missouri Pippins bore fruit last year. I consider the following varieties, in the order named, best for commercial orchard: Ben Davis, Jonathan, Winesap, Grimes's Golden Pippin; and for family use I would add Maiden's Blush, Cooper's Early White, Missouri Pippin, and Rawle's Janet. I have tried and discarded Smith's Cider and Lowell, as they blight too much. I prefer bottom land if it is properly drained, as it is apt to be richer and the trees will not suffer as much in a dry season--black loam, with a porous subsoil, to let the surplus water soak away. I think a northern slope best, as the trees do not suffer as much from the sun on hot summer days. Apple trees have done best for me on a black loam underlaid with a porous subsoil that will take the surplus water and still hold moisture in summer.

I plant by plowing light furrows (thirty-four feet apart) across the lay of the ground, then plowing two or four furrows together up and down the slope thirty-four feet apart, and run a lister in this big furrow, breaking up the ground as deeply as possible. I dip the roots of my trees in lye water, using one pound carbonate of lye to eight gallons of water. Then fill in with a spade around the roots, being careful not to leave any holes for mice to nest in. Two- or three-year-old trees, with roots and top well balanced, no forks to split down when the tree gets older, bark smooth and good color, I consider best. I prefer piece-root to whole-root grafts. My experience is that we get better trees on piece roots, as the union is lower down in the ground and the scion throws out roots, which makes the trees healthy and not wholly dependent on seedling roots. I cultivate my orchard till ten or twelve years old, and keep all weeds and gra.s.s away, using an eight-inch plow with one horse next to the trees and backfurrow to every other row; then use two horses and fourteen-inch plow for the middles. The next year I backfurrow to the rows left the year before; in this way we have no large back or dead furrows, but keep the ground level. In cultivating I use a fourteen-tooth Peerless harrow each side of the row, and cultivate the rest with two-horse cultivator; then use a good sharp hoe close to the trees. Corn is the best crop to raise among young trees, as it acts as a windbreak and a partial shade. After an orchard gets to bearing, seed to red clover. I would change from corn to clover eight or nine years after setting.

Windbreaks are essential. I would have them on the south and west sides of the orchard, at least. I would make them of evergreen, Osage orange, or mulberry. I would not plant black walnut, cottonwood, or maple, as they are injurious to apple trees. Plant peach trees between the apple trees; they grow fast, and protect the apple until large enough to stand the winds. The best thing I have found to keep rabbits, mice, etc., off the trees is a protector made of five lath two feet long, woven with wire; they can be left on summer and winter, as sunlight and air can pa.s.s through to the bark and keep it healthy and keep the sun from scalding the bark; it also keeps the borers and the whippletree from doing much damage; they can be left on until the trees outgrow them. I cut out all limbs that are liable to rub each other at any future time, and all limbs that are liable to split down as the tree gets older; I also trim high enough to let a small horse walk under the limbs. I take off the back pad while working among the trees, so it will not be catching on the limbs; I think that it pays, and is beneficial. I have not thinned the fruit while on the trees. My trees are planted in alternate rows of different kinds, so I cannot tell what is best, blocks or mixed. I use all the barn-yard litter broadcast that I can get, and wish I had more. I shall plow under a good crop of red clover about every other year, and seed again the same year to clover, as I think it beneficial; I would do the same on all lands that I have yet tried. I do not let horses or cattle over one year old pasture in the orchard. I let calves and small pigs have access to the orchard, as they will eat up a great many wormy apples that drop, and help keep down the weeds. I think it advisable to pasture with young stock, and that it pays.

My apple trees are troubled with canker-worm, twig-borer, and leaf-crumpler. The codling-moth troubled my apples some last year. I have not tried spraying as yet. I have found borers in a few trees that were out in the gra.s.s near the fence. I pick my apples by hand; using step-ladders for the lower limbs, and longer ladders, wide at the bottom and very narrow at the top, for the upper limbs. While picking in the inside of a tree, I use a half-bushel sack made to hang on a limb, and so arranged that it can be let to the ground and emptied without getting out of the tree. I make three grades of my apples: First, good size, smooth, free from worms, and good calyx; second, apples under size, a little specked and wormy; third, culls. I have been sorting from the pile, but think I shall use a table made with the back end the higher, and the top made of heavy canvas without end, and pa.s.sing over rollers at each end, so the apples can be brought in reach without handling them; then I would arrange my barrels so that the apples can be placed in them without bruising. I prefer the three-bushel barrel to s.h.i.+p in; but for handling I want a one-bushel box with handholes in the ends. I would pack the barrels as tight as possible, and then mark the name of variety, grade and name of grower on it. I would s.h.i.+p them by fast freight or express.

Sometimes I sell in the orchard. I have generally sold by retail and peddled, as I have a good set of customers. I can do as well to sell direct to the consumer as to sell at wholesale. I sell second grade to any one that will buy. I feed the culls to cattle and hogs, and let the hens have all they want. I have had a market near home for all I have grown; may have to look further when all my trees bear. I have not tried distant markets. What I have tried took all the profits. I do not think it pays to dry apples, unless on an extensive scale. I store my apples for winter market in a dry cellar. I pack in both barrels and boxes while in the cellar; prefer boxes, as they are easier to handle and sort from. I have not been as successful as I would like, but think I have done as well as many apple-growers have with the number of trees I have.

The Ben Davis, Winesap and Janet have kept the best for me. I have not tried artificial cold storage. If apples are held any length of time, I repack, so as to be sure they are up to grade. I do not lose over two per cent. In the fall apples sold at about thirty cents per bushel, and through the winter fifty to eighty cents per bushel. I employ careful men to pick and handle my fruit. I pay from fifteen dollars to eighteen dollars a month and board.

S. REYNOLDS, Lawrence, Douglas county: I have lived in Kansas forty-three years; have an apple orchard planted from two to forty years. I planted my first orchard in 1858, and, not knowing anything about what sorts would be suitable for Kansas, I had to rely entirely on what the Missouri nurserymen recommended. Among the sorts planted which proved failures were Yellow Bellflower, Fulton Strawberry, White Winter Pearmain, Baldwin, the Russets and some others. Winesap, Rawle's Janet, Dominie and White Bellflower all did fairly well. Of all the sorts the Winesap has been the most profitable. If I had planted that first orchard chiefly to Winesaps, the cash receipts would have been more than double. My later experience and observations prove that the Missouri Pippin is the most profitable apple to grow for the market, the Winesap and Ben Davis following next in order. For a family orchard, I prefer Early Harvest, Maiden's Blush, Jonathan, and Winesap. I prefer second bottom, with a rich soil and a porous subsoil. I prefer two-year-old, vigorous trees, set in rows two rods apart. Use a potato hook.

I consider the best plan of planting is to throw two furrows together, and plant on this double thickness of surface soil; the roots will luxuriate in this bed of fertile soil and with proper care the tree will make a vigorous growth. Plant early in the spring, before the buds start. I cultivate my orchard with a disc harrow followed by a common harrow, until they begin to bear; plant corn, potatoes or other hoed crop in a young orchard. Seed the bearing orchard to clover. Windbreaks are not essential in eastern Kansas. For rabbits I wrap the young trees; dig borers out. Pruning should be done at the time of planting. After that give the tree all the top it can grow. Never fear but the roots will keep pace with the top. Remember that every time you cut out a large limb you threaten the life of the tree. Give the tree plenty of room, so that the roots will not overreach each other. The moisture in the soil is only sufficient for one set of roots. About two rods apart is the proper distance. I prune with a knife to keep the limbs from crossing. I do not thin the fruit while on the trees, they usually thin themselves. My Ben Davis and Missouri Pippins are in mixed planting. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter; I think it beneficial, and would advise its use on all soils after the trees begin to bear. I pasture my orchard in the fall after the fruit is gathered, with horses.

I cannot see any injury. I never let horned cattle in.

My trees are troubled with root aphis and roundhead borers. I do not spray. I find that all apples must be gathered before they are quite ripe if we want them to keep well. In order to have them in the best condition for keeping they must be picked without bruises; I hand-pick mine in a sack over the shoulder. They must be kept perfectly cool and at an even temperature. This of course can be done by placing them in cold storage. I sort from a table in the orchard into two cla.s.ses, large and medium. Pack in barrels, mark with grade, and haul to market. I sell apples in the orchard, generally wholesale them; sell the best to s.h.i.+ppers. Sell the culls for cider. My best markets are west and north.

I have tried distant markets, through agents, and found it paid. I do not dry any apples, but sell many low-grade apples to the evaporating factory. Do not store any; sell in the fall to s.h.i.+ppers. Do not irrigate. Prices have been from one dollar per barrel up. Dried apples from four to six cents per pound. I employ young men at one dollar per day. The profits from a good apple orchard are more than those from any other crop which requires no more labor and expense. The profits from one good crop of apples are more than from three crops of wheat or corn; but apple-growing, as well as the growing of all other kinds of fruit, requires constant, patient labor and attention, in order to be successful, and even then the money will not come in with a great rush.

In conclusion, I would say, that the business of growing fruit is much more certain of success than that of mercantile business. It has been ascertained from actual statistics that, of every 100 merchants, fifty utterly fail in business, forty are only moderately successful, and of the remaining ten only one will become rich.