JOHN REED, Oak Hill, Clay county: I have resided in the state twenty years; have an apple orchard of 100 trees six years old. For market I prefer Ben Davis and Winesap; and for family orchard add Jonathan and a few early varieties. I prefer low land with a porous subsoil, and a northeast slope. I prefer two-year-old trees with branches one foot from the ground. When setting I dig big holes and loosen up the subsoil about a foot. I find this gives the best satisfaction. I have always cultivated my orchard, and intend to do so three or four years longer; I plow twice a year--in spring, and the middle of June; I keep the ground well stirred. I planted corn the first three years, listed it in, but would not recommend it, as the trees will do better if the land is plowed. Windbreaks are essential on the south and west sides of the orchard; would make them of two rows of cottonwood trees planted zigzag with one another. For rabbits I wrap with corn-stalks. I dig borers out and wash the trees with lye water twice a year for the first three years; it keeps the tree nice and clean and the borers out. I prune my trees, by cutting out the limbs that cross, and to keep the trees from leaning to the north, and it pays. I fertilize my orchard with decayed corn-cobs. I think it beneficial, and would advise it on all soils, as I think too much straw mulching is an injury to the trees when they get old. I do not pasture my orchard; it does not pay. My trees were troubled with canker-worms last spring. I do not spray. My best market is in the neighborhood. Prices last fall were fifty to sixty cents per bushel.
GEO. R. BARNES, Chapman, Dickinson county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-seven years; have an apple orchard of six acres old enough to be at their best. For market I prefer Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Jonathan, and Winesap, and for family use Early Harvest, Red June, Maiden's Blush, and Missouri Pippin. I prefer a low bottom with a black loam, and a north slope. I prefer two-year-old, well-balanced trees, set in holes large enough to receive them, twenty-four by twenty-four feet. I cultivate my young orchard to corn and potatoes, using a disc harrow, and cease cropping when they begin to bear. I plant nothing in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks would be beneficial on the south to protect the orchard from the hot south winds. I would make it of walnut trees, because they sap the ground the least. To protect them from the borers, I leave the branches low down, and when we see any sawdust I dig him out with a knife. I prune very little with knife and saw to balance the trees. I do not thin the fruit on the trees. Some say if you expect to get a load of apples from a tree you must give it a load of manure every time it bears, and I think this is right, but don't put it too close to the tree. I pasture my orchard with nothing but poultry; it is not advisable; it makes the ground too hard. Codling-moth troubles my apples very much. I do not spray. I sell apples in the orchard; peddle the best ones; make cider and vinegar of the culls. Don't dry any for market--just enough for family use. Prices have been from forty to seventy-five cents per bushel.