I had twenty-four very fine Siberian crabs--Hyslop, Transparent, and Whitney. They were affected with blight. Nearly all of the Siberian trees were dead from the effects of it, and one day, while in the orchard watching the movements of the birds and boys, I saw a striped woodpecker fly to one of the trees, and he found what he supposed to be a grub, but when he got through the bark he was very much disappointed, wiped his bill, and flew to another tree, where he continued to wipe and clean his bill; so I went to the tree mentioned, and found the bark very loose and sour where he had punctured it. I compared the smell and taste with the blighted twigs and found them the same. I cut the bark that was loose from the tree, and found the rapid growth of the bark and the flow of the sap had bursted the bark from the wood, and this sap had soured and been taken up by the other sap and poisoned the ends of the new growth; hence, it blighted. It was sap poison, like blood poison. I then used the knife freely, splitting the body and limbs. I saved twenty out of twenty-four of the trees. I then went over the orchard and cured all the trees in one season; never been bothered since. The woodpecker taught me a lesson, and I relate it to show the value of birds in the orchard.
A. C. MOORE, Wanamaker, Shawnee county: I have lived in Kansas thirty-three years; have an apple orchard of 400 trees, from twelve to seventeen years old. For market I prefer Winesap, Jonathan, Missouri Pippin, and Ben Davis; and for a family orchard Red Astrachan, Early Harvest, Maiden's Blush, Smokehouse, and Winesap. Have tried and discarded Tulpehocken; it rots on the tree and will not keep. I prefer bottom land, with sandy loam and clay subsoil, and a north slope. I prefer two-year-old trees, with full top and roots, set fifteen inches deep, in furrows checked with the plow; plant where furrows cross. I plant my orchard to corn eight years, using a plow, harrow, and cultivator; cease cropping at the end of this time and seed to clover. Windbreaks are essential on the south; would make them of Osage orange fifteen rods distant, to protect the orchard from the hard and hot south winds. For rabbits I wrap the young trees with paper. I prune my trees after they are eight years old, with the saw, to give light and thin the top. I think it beneficial. I do not thin my apples; enough fall off. I fertilize my orchard by mowing the clover, and think it beneficial to young trees, and would advise the use of clover fertilization on all soils. I do not pasture my orchard; is not advisable. My trees are troubled with borers, and my apples with some insect that stings them and causes them to fall off. I do not spray. I pick my apples by hand with care. Sort into two classes, pack in barrels, in layers, by hand, mark with variety, and haul to shipping place or market in lumber wagon. I wholesale my best apples; make vinegar of the second and third grades and culls. Topeka is my best market; never tried distant markets. I do not dry any. I am successful in storing apples in barrels in a cellar; I also bury some. I find Romanite keeps best. I have to repack stored apples before marketing, losing about one-eighth of them. I do not irrigate. Price has been fifty cents per bushel.