For convenience, Kansas was divided by the official board into four
fruit districts, simply quartering the state. The first district is
composed of the following twenty-seven counties, in the northeast
quarter. Reports, or rather experiences, from each of these counties
will be found immediately following. We give below the number of apple
trees in the first district, compiled from the statistics of 1897. Many
thousands were added during the spring of 1898.
DISTRICT No. 1--APPLE TREES, 1897.
_Bearing._ _Not bearing._ _Total._
Atchison county 150,024 70,691 220,715
Brown county 160,583 57,488 218,071
Clay county 89,725 26,087 115,812
Cloud county 68,832 24,451 93,283
Dickinson county 110,351 31,926 142,277
Doniphan county 156,661 163,701 320,362
Douglas county 159,706 120,375 280,081
Franklin county 126,906 70,831 197,737
Geary county 39,148 19,357 58,505
Jackson county 123,485 84,533 208,018
Jefferson county 120,509 86,837 207,346
Johnson county 88,395 69,709 158,104
Leavenworth county 199,212 216,015 415,227
Marshall county 157,279 66,556 223,835
Miami county 101,541 82,069 183,610
Morris county 93,182 45,555 138,737
Nemaha county 140,278 62,535 202,813
Osage county 246,265 56,478 302,743
Ottawa county 40,538 30,149 60,687
Pottawatomie county 117,234 50,079 167,313
Republic county 128,076 58,662 186,738
Riley county 103,053 44,640 147,693
Saline county 74,648 24,400 99,048
Shawnee county 207,779 130,720 338,499
Wabaunsee county 108,942 50,195 159,137
Washington county 152,768 80,194 232,962
Wyandotte county 112,541 79,903 192,444
--------- --------- ---------
Total in district 3,377,661 1,894,136 5,271,797
Acreage, about 600,000 300,000 900,000
* * * * *
FRED WELLHOUSE & SON: Have been in Kansas since 1859, and grow no fruit
but apples, having 117 acres in Leavenworth county, planted in 1876; 160
acres in Miami county, planted in 1878; 160 acres in Leavenworth county,
planted in 1879; 800 acres in Osage county, planted in 1889, 1890, and
1891; 300 acres in Leavenworth county, planted in 1894; 140 acres in
Leavenworth county, planted in 1896--total of about 100,000 trees, set
out from two to twenty-two years. We prefer for commercial orchard,
Jonathan, Missouri Pippin, Ben Davis, Winesap, and York Imperial, and
for family orchard would add to these, Red June, Chenango, Maiden's
Blush, Huntsman, and Rome Beauty. We tried sixteen acres of Cooper's
Early White, but have discarded them as unprofitable, shy bearers. We
consider upland the best if soil is of good quality. We have them on all
slopes; can see no particular difference where soil is equal. We prefer
rich, black soil (vegetable mold), clay subsoil. We plant in furrows,
the rows thirty-two feet apart, the trees sixteen feet apart in the
rows, running north and south.
The best trees to plant are two years old, the lowest limb or limbs not
over two feet from the ground. We grow most of our trees from our own
root grafts. Cultivation: We cultivate for the first five years, by
throwing the soil first to and then from the trees, with a single or a
double turning plow, and grow only corn. At five years from planting we
sow the ground to clover, and this with other growths, such as weeds, is
left on the ground as a mulch and fertilizer. We have never used any
windbreaks at any of our orchards. Think they would be an advantage in
some localities. We use traps for rabbits, knife and wire for borers. We
prune very little, such as removing broken limbs. We have never
fertilized any of our orchards. We do not believe it pays to pasture
orchards, and do not allow it.
The insects that trouble us most are: Canker-worm, tent-caterpillar,
fringed-wing bud moth, handmaid-moth or yellow-necked caterpillar,
roundheaded borer and the tussock-moth caterpillar on our trees; and
codling-moth, gouger and tree cricket on and in our fruit. We spray
annually, using a horse-power machine, illustrated in former reports of
the State Horticultural Society, for the leaf-eating insects named,
using London purple and clear water, sometimes adding lime. We spray
before the blossom opens, for bud moth, canker-worm and
tent-caterpillar, and after the petals have fallen for codling-moth,
tussock-moth, and fall web-worm. We have been successful except as to
bud moth and fall web-worm. We believe we have greatly reduced the
codling-moth by spraying, and we know we have destroyed the canker-worm.
Have never successfully combated borers, excepting with knife and wire.
Fall web-worms are burned in the tree with a gasoline torch, or the
small limbs with webs are removed and burned. We have as yet found no
particular method for fighting the bud moth successfully.
We gather our apples by hand in common two-bushel seamless sacks, used
in the same manner as for sowing grain. A strap of heavy leather is
attached, making it easy for the shoulder. A hook and ring are also put
on to facilitate the removal of the sack when emptying. We prefer common
straight ladders, with sides from sixteen to twenty inches apart at the
bottom and six inches at the top, rounds fourteen inches apart. We use
bushel boxes for hauling from the orchard to packing-house. We sort into
three grades: No. 1, No. 2, and culls. No. 1's are all sound and firm
apples, of about from two and one-fourth to two and one-half inches in
diameter, the size of the smallest depending on the variety. We put in
the No. 2 grade those that have any defects barring them from the first
grade, yet they make a good second-class for immediate use; we also pack
in this grade any sound apples that run uniformally small.
Of all packages tried, we prefer and use the three-bushel barrel, 17-1/8
inch head and 28-1/2 inch stave. When one head is removed, the barrel is
turned over and a rap with the hand removes all trash. If we are packing
a fine grade of fruit, we put a piece of white paper, cut a little less
than the diameter of the barrel, in before facing. Barrels are
double-faced or plated. We are careful to have the barrels rocked or
shaken often while being filled. The name of variety and our trade-mark
is put on the barrel with stencil or rubber stamp. No. 1's and 2's are
hauled to shipping station in barrels; culls in bulk in ordinary farm
wagon. We have never sold our crop in the orchard; always preferred to
have it picked and packed under our own supervision. Our apples have
been sold in car lots. Firsts and seconds have gone to wholesale
dealers. Culls we have evaporated, sold to men who evaporate, to
cider-mills, and to dealers who handle bulk apples.
For drying, we use the New York hop kiln, Rival No. 2 parers, and
upright bleachers, all of which have been reasonably satisfactory. We
believe them the best we can get, considering the class of evaporated
fruit in demand. White stock is best handled in fifty-pound boxes;
chops, peelings and cores in sacks. We always found a ready market for
dried fruit. Some years it paid well.
We have wintered only in cold-storage plants, always in barrels, and it
has been profitable. Ben Davis and Winesap have kept best, with Missouri
Pippin a close second. Jonathan keeps well under proper conditions. If
kept as late as March, it is generally necessary to repack, but not
always. Our greatest loss has been on Jonathan, which in some instances,
when kept late in the season, has reached ten per cent.
We have never irrigated or watered any part of our orchards.
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, Washington 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
circumstances 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 classes 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 Washington 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 township, 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 grass 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
classes 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 grass 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
pass 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 grass 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 passing 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 ship 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 ship 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 classes, 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
shippers. 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 shippers. 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.
* * * * *
W. J. GRIFFING, Manhattan, Kan.: Were that old fisherman, Izaak Walton,
alive to-day, and an enthusiastic fruit-grower of eastern Kansas, he
would probably express himself in the book he would write, "The Complete
Horticulturist," that "doubtless God might have made a better apple
country than this, but doubtless He never did." If there is a strip of
land in the United States equal in size to the eastern third of Kansas
able to grow as many and as fine apples as this particular strip, it has
yet to be discovered. Our own experience in this line dates back just
forty years. In 1858 the old family account-book shows the purchase by
my father of three dollars' worth of apple trees (the number not given).
This amount judiciously expended now would secure considerable nursery
stock; but the same record shows the purchase, the month previous, of
wheat at two dollars per bushel; sugar, six pounds for one dollar;
flour, five dollars per hundredweight; so the number of trees obtained
was probably not large. The following year, however (1859), seventy-one
apple trees and some cherry trees were purchased, at a cost of $17.75.
These efforts to start an orchard were successful. The location was on
the old homestead, about two and one-half miles east of what was at that
time a frontier village called Topeka. The trees bore the first fruit in
1867. Other and more profitable orchards have been planted since then on
the farm, but a few of the original plantation are still standing and
bearing occasional crops of fruit (so my brother informs me).
On locating at Manhattan in 1870, the sod was broken, and the following
year an orchard was planted; and we have planted trees more or less
every year since. It has proven a source of pleasure and profit. After
it commenced bearing I do not recall a year when the crop was an entire
failure, and though we cannot now command two dollars per bushel, as we
could for the apples from the Topeka orchard, yet they have paid well.
The number of varieties we have tried is no less than seventy-five, not
including seedlings. The following varieties I would unhesitatingly
recommend as having proved profitable and more or less hardy. For early
summer, Early Harvest and Red Astrachan; both are tender apples when
fully ripe and will then not bear shipping well. I have found it best
to gather the ripest at least every other day and find buyers in the
local market. The next to follow these, Chenango Strawberry, Maiden's
Blush, and Pennsylvania Red Streak; the two latter are good shippers.
The Pennsylvania Red Streaks are a decided success with me, and have
paid nearly as well as my best winter sorts; don't fail to plant some of
them. Next, I would recommend the following winter varieties in the
order named: Winesap, Missouri Pippin, Ben Davis, Jonathan, and if you
like a first-class sweet apple plant some Bentley Sweet, if you can
obtain them. I have been obliged to top-graft some seedlings in order to
perpetuate my own stock of them. I think it is also advisable to plant
some Rawle's Janet trees. They are a late bloomer and will occasionally
produce a crop when the other sorts have been injured by late freezing.
In fact, they have the faculty of bearing in the "off" years, as we call
them--years when the balance of the orchard is resting from previous
labors.
Much has been said as to the proper location for an orchard--bottom land
or hilltop, level ground or sloping. The fact is, with careful attention
to the trees, any good, rich soil will answer. Anything that can in a
measure ward off the evil effects of the fierce summer gales and the
droughts of July, August and September will tend to minimize the losses.
Were it possible for me to choose a piece of land exactly to my notions,
I should select a river-bottom farm in the neck of some large
"horseshoe," being where it would be possible for the trees to reach
down their roots and draw moisture during the dry season by natural
subirrigation. Marketing the crop is the last but not the least work of
the apple-grower. In fact, when the orchard is well established, this is
about the only work connected with the orchard. And in that respect the
orchard has a decided advantage over other farm crops, that require
yearly preparation of the soil, sowing, harrowing, cultivating, etc., as
well as the harvesting of the crop. The early summer apples can usually
be sold on the local market at fair prices; the later summer and fall
can be shipped, and are usually in fair demand by Western buyers. Ship
only your best; it will hardly pay to send any other grade. There is
usually a good demand at this point for winter varieties by farmers from
the West, who come in and buy their winter supply by the wagon-load.
Occasionally, if the Eastern crop is short, buyers from Chicago will be
on the ground. We do not believe in holding apples long in the hope of
obtaining higher prices. Cold storage will solve this difficulty of the
orchardist; we hope it will prove a success.
The most convenient thing to gather apples in from a tree or ladder that
we have tried is a picking sack--a grain sack with a heavy wire or a
stiff leather strap fastened around the mouth, and a broad strap
connecting the top with the bottom of the sack. This can be carried over
the shoulder with considerable comfort. There are always more or less
inferior and unmarketable apples left after the best have been disposed
of, and what to do with them is a question that confronts every great
apple grower. For the last fourteen years we have been working this
grade into vinegar. We found there was considerable to learn and care
exercised to avoid losses. I will mention a few important things that
are necessary to produce a good article of cider vinegar. First obtain
good, iron-bound oak barrels--vinegar or whisky barrels preferred. Never
use soft wood barrels of any kind. Paint them well with ocher before
using; they will last longer. After filling with cider, keep in a shed
until cool weather; then draw off and run into barrels in the cellar for
winter, although, if well protected and not too full, they could remain
out in the shed over winter. In the spring draw off again and run into
other barrels; you will, in this, hasten the fermentation of vinegar and
obtain an article free from sediment. It requires from one to two years
for vinegar to cease working. Sell it then, and not before. Though it
may be very strong, it will not keep pickles unless the process is
complete. Much of the vinegar sold on the markets as apple vinegar is
made from corn, and now that corn has risen in price it is possible that
the price of this kind of vinegar may rise also. It has not the quality
or flavor of cider vinegar, but it can be manufactured so cheaply that
it has hurt the market for a better article.
* * * * *
Maj. FRANK HOLSINGER, Rosedale, Wyandotte county: Has resided in Kansas
since March 7, 1867--thirty years; has 1500 apple trees from one to
twenty-nine years planted, "big as a barn." Prefers Gano, Ben Davis,
Missouri Pippin and York Imperial for commercial purposes, and Early
Harvest, Cooper's Early White, Maiden's Blush and Jonathan added for
family use. Says life is too short to tell how many varieties he has
tried and discarded. Prefers a loose soil, and used to think hilltop
best, but says there is no choice between bottom and hilltop, and that
any particular slope is a delusion, as all are equal. Plants medium
two-year-old trees, "usually roots downward--tops up." Cultivates with
double-shovel plow and hoe up to seven years, planting with corn or
potatoes. Then grows clover and weeds, "weeds mostly," ceasing to
cultivate when it becomes inconvenient. Says windbreaks are unnecessary,
and should only be made of the sun--"let her shine"--and does not
understand how a rabbit can do a _mechanical_ job of gnawing. Does not
prune; he "trains"; leaves the pruning tools in the tool-house, and says
it pays. Would thin apples on trees if labor did not come so high. His
experience as to difference in fruitfulness between planting of one or
of several kinds [together] is unsatisfactory. Believes fertilizers are
good for trees if spread out, never if piled around the tree; would
surely advise its use on all orchards. Would never allow an orchard
pastured by any kind of live stock.
Has a large list of insects to contend against, but is not bothered with
leaf eaters, hence does not spray, and does not believe any one has
lessened the codling-moth by spraying. Uses common sense on borers, and
digs them out. He first mounds the tree, and thereby gets what larvae
there may be deposited high up in the collar, few remain; these I dig
out, which is all "simple enough." He describes gathering apples thus:
"Pick 'em by hand; surround the apple with your fingers, break back
gently, which loosens the stem, then lay gently in the basket. It is
very simple, the process." Makes two classes, one the best, the other of
seconds. In the first we put all that seem perfect; in the second, all
others that are not culls. Packs in barrels, well shaken down and
pressed; marks with name of variety, and always rolls [?] them to
market. Sells the best any way possible, peddles seconds, and lets the
culls rot. His best market is Kansas City--three miles. Never dries any.
Stores for winter in various ways. Has had varying success, and believes
loss in cold store was owing to varying temperature and lack of proper
care. Does not irrigate, but trusts in the Lord. Prices range from six
dollars to ten dollars per barrel. For help he uses "men and mules," and
pays as "little as possible, believing that is often too much."
* * * * *
JOHN E. SAMPLE, Beman, Morris county: Have been in Kansas twenty years;
have 1000 trees planted twelve years, of Ben Davis, Rawle's Janet,
Missouri Pippin, and Winesap; also Red and Sweet June, Early Harvest,
and Maiden's Blush. Have discarded the Twenty-ounce Pippin as no good
here. I have a deep, black loam with a clay subsoil, on upland, with
southeast slope. I plant two-year-old trees a little deeper than they
grow in the nursery, in rows thirty feet apart, and thirty feet in the
rows, alternating the trees. I cultivate to corn and potatoes for about
eight years, and then sow to red clover. I believe windbreaks
beneficial, and would make them of red cedar or Russian apricots planted
on the west, south and east sides, thirty feet from the orchard. I feed
the rabbits corn and clover; have no trouble with borers. I prune
heavily, to make the apples large and keep down too much wood growth. I
fertilize my trees with timber dirt, and think it pays. I believe it
pays and is advisable to pasture orchards with hogs. I pick by hand, and
sort into three classes: large, medium, small and blemished. Have not
dried any. Store in the cellar, in crates two feet long, ten inches
wide, and eight inches deep. Have sold at fifty to eighty cents per
bushel.
* * * * *
E. K. WOLVERTON, Barnes, Washington county: I have resided in Kansas
twenty-eight years; have an apple orchard of 18,500 trees from five to
twenty-seven years old. For market I prefer Missouri Pippin and Ben
Davis, and for family orchard would add Duchess of Oldenburg. Have tried
and discarded Winesap and Rawle's Janet on account of shy bearing and
poor keeping quality. I prefer a rich bottom with a porous subsoil, an
east and north slope. I prefer good, thrifty, two-year-old trees. I
plant by wire after the principle of check-row corn-planting; make the
links twenty feet long, tie a white cloth in each link coupling, make
the line long enough to plant ten trees (eleven links in length),
stretch the chain east and west, say on north side of plat intended for
planting; stick a stake at every tag. Draw another line ten trees south
of it, and stick a stake at every tag, and so on to the south side of
the plat. Then draw the line from the northeast stake to the east stake
of the second row, the one due south, having the north tag at the stake.
Then plant at every tag, placing the tree on east side of wire. When the
row is planted move the wire west to the next stake, and so on till you
reach the west side. The ground should first be prepared by plowing as
for corn; float off [?] every evening all that you have plowed that day,
which leaves the ground in the best condition.
I cultivate my orchard to corn for six to eight years. I plant twenty
feet each way, and take an oak plant sixteen feet long, and place one
section of a disc at each end of it, making it cut sixteen feet wide
from outside to outside, and running within two feet of the trees at
either end, leaving a space eight feet wide in the middle. Run another
disc on that ground with another team and you have the space between the
rows all clean of weeds if ground is in good condition when work is
done. Cultivate both ways as often as necessary. I grow no crop in a
bearing orchard. Windbreaks are not essential. For rabbits I tie coarse
grass around the trees with label wire, and leave it on two years. I
also use traps. I do not prune my trees; it is too injurious to the
trees. I do not thin my apples while on the trees; it is too expensive.
My trees are planted in blocks. I fertilize my orchard with stable
litter; think it beneficial and would advise its use on all soils. I do
not pasture my orchard. My apples are troubled with worms. I spray the
first of May with London purple for canker and apple worms.
I pick in baskets and sacks. Sort into two classes: marketable and
culls, using a sorting table. Sell my apples in the orchard to wagons
from the West. I evaporate the second- and third-grade apples when the
crop is large; make the culls into cider and vinegar. I tried distant
markets for two years and found they paid. When apples are abundant we
dry for market; use the same kind of driers as are used at Fairmount;
sell them in sacks to the stores, and find a ready market for them; but
it does not always pay. I do not store any for winter market if I can
sell them in the fall. I do not irrigate. Prices have been in 1896,
twenty-five cents per bushel; 1897, forty cents per bushel.
* * * * *
J. A. HEWITT, Hiawatha, Brown county: I have lived in Kansas thirty
years, and have an orchard of 900 trees twenty-six years old. For
commercial purposes I prefer the Ben Davis, Winesap, and Jonathan; and
for family use would add Early Harvest, Maiden's Blush, and Grimes's
Golden. Have tried and discarded some; very few varieties pay. I prefer
high prairie. Have never grown any seedlings. I cultivate my orchard by
planting to corn--raising no small grain--for a few years, then use the
disc and harrow as long as the orchard lasts. I plant nothing in the
bearing orchard, and cease cropping about eight years after setting.
Windbreaks are essential to a growing orchard. I prune my trees a little
every year to keep them in shape, and to let the sun in; I think it
beneficial, and that it pays. Do not thin the fruit while on the trees,
but think it would save time and pay well. I can see no difference
whether trees are in blocks [of one kind] or mixed plantings. I do not
fertilize my orchard, but am sure it would be beneficial, judging by
some that have fertilized; I would advise it on all soils. No! no! no!
no! I do not pasture my orchard; do not think it advisable; it does not
pay. My apples are troubled with codling-moth. I do not spray. I sell my
apples in the orchard at wholesale, yet sometimes retail them. I let my
neighbors pick up the culls at ten cents per bushel. My best market is
at home. I store apples successfully in bushel crates. I find the
Winesap, Rawle's Janet, Ben Davis and Little Romanite keep best. I have
to repack stored apples before marketing, losing about two per cent.
* * * * *
JAMES DUNLAP, Detroit, Dickinson county: Has lived in Kansas since
October, 1871. Has an orchard of 1200 apple trees, 300 planted sixteen
years, 700 planted eleven years, 200 planted six years. Considers
Missouri Pippin, Winesap, Ben Davis and Jonathan best for market, and
for family would add Red June, Early Harvest, Mammoth Black Twig, and
Cooper's Early White. Have tried and discarded Yellow Transparent,
Rambo, Fameuse, and others. Prefers bottom and eastern slope, sandy
loam, with clay subsoil. Plants thrifty one-year-old trees in holes
large enough to spread the roots out well, leaning the young trees
slightly to the southwest. Cultivates both ways as close to the trees as
possible, usually planting to corn until the orchard is about twelve
years old; then pastures to calves in fore part of season, mowing off
the grass and weeds later. Believes windbreaks very essential on north,
west and south sides; uses Osage orange hedge and two rows of
forest-trees, planting them seven feet apart and seven feet away from
the apple trees, when orchard is started.
For protection from rabbits he uses a wash of lye and soft soap on the
tree. In pruning he believes it pays to cut out sap sprouts, and balance
up the tree. He fertilizes by placing stable litter around the trees in
winter, and spreading it in the spring, and says it pays. Says it
certainly pays and does no harm to pasture the old orchards with calves.
He is troubled with canker-worm, flathead borer, tarnish plant-bug, fall
web-worm, and leaf-crumpler, also with codling-moth. He sometimes sprays
for codling-moth and canker-worm, and thinks he has reduced both of them
materially. Cuts out borers and washes the tree with lye. Has tried
kerosene oil on borers and says it did not seem to injure the trees. He
picks in baskets, dumps in piles in the orchard, and covers with coarse
hay. Sorts into two classes--sellers and cider apples. Uses barrels as a
package. Makes cider vinegar and hog feed of culls, and sells his good
apples in various ways; has sold in orchard. His best markets are the
surrounding towns and the neighboring farmers. Never dries any, and only
stores enough for winter use of family. Price in 1896 was seventy-five
cents for best, fifty cents for seconds. Hires no help.
* * * * *
ROBERT MONTGOMERY, Troy, Doniphan county: Came to Kansas in 1857; served
three years in the United States army, and have been here ever since. I
have 4000 apple trees that have been set from twenty to thirty years. My
market varieties are Ben Davis, Jonathan, and Missouri Pippin. For
family use I added Yellow Transparent, Red June, Chenango Strawberry,
White Winter Pearmain, Rawle's Janet, and Nelson's Sweet. I have
discarded the Baldwin, Spitzenberg, Northern Spy, Early Harvest, and
Early Pennock. Bottom land is not good; hills and hollows are best, with
north or east slope; what we call mulatto soil is best. I prefer thrifty
two- or three-year-old trees with low tops. Half of my trees are planted
thirty feet each way. I now plant in rows two rods apart north and south
and one rod apart in the row. I raise corn and potatoes among my trees
for five or seven years, cultivating with the plow and the hoe;
afterward I seed to clover; a disc can be used to good advantage every
year; I keep the orchard in clover. Windbreaks are beneficial on high
land, made of cottonwood, or better of cedar or Norway spruce, planted
on the south side when you plant the orchard. I protect from rabbits
with wooden protectors, leaving them on the year round. I cut the borers
out with a knife, also use a wire. I shape the head of young trees by
cutting out all the watersprouts with pruning shears and saw; old trees
must be pruned or the apples will be small.
Barn-yard litter is beneficial on thin land, not necessary on rich land,
but ashes are good on any soil. I pasture my orchard in summer with
young horses and hogs. I think it advisable, as the hogs eat the apples
that drop and destroy the worms. I have never sprayed. I pick in
half-bushel baskets, and sacks with an iron hoop in the mouth; pour them
in barrels and haul them to the barn, except those we wish to ship at
once, which we sort in the orchard. I make two classes--good, sound,
merchantable apples, and seconds. I have a culler that holds one barrel.
I sort into a barrel, throwing the culls into another barrel, and I
afterward sort the culls, for seconds; I pack in eleven-peck barrels,
full and pressed solid, marked with the name of the variety written on
the barrel. I sell the best at wholesale in barrels, the second grade by
car-loads in bulk; the culls I give away, feed to hogs and cows, and
make into cider. My best market is East and North. Have never shipped
more than 500 or 600 miles away, and it paid. Have never dried any, and
only store in barrels in my barn until I get a sale for them, never
later than December. Price in the orchards in 1896 was seventy-five
cents per barrel; in 1897, one dollar and a half. I use men for picking,
at one dollar per day and their dinner.
* * * * *
F. W. DIXON, Holton, Jackson county: Has been in Kansas twenty-seven
years; has an apple orchard of 6000 trees, set from three to twenty-five
years. Grows and recommends for commercial orchard: Ben Davis, Missouri
Pippin, Jonathan, Winesap, and Gano. For family orchard: Winesap, Ben
Davis, Jonathan, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Maiden's Blush, and Rawle's
Janet. Has tried and discarded Yellow Transparent, Early Harvest, Red
June, Wagener, Willow Twig, Dominie, Roman Stem, Seek-no-further,
Porter, Pound Sweet, Nyack Pippin, and Minkler, because they did not
pay; some blighted and failed to bear. Prefer timber soil, or sandy loam
with open clay subsoil; bottom land is good if it has not a hard-pan
subsoil. Apples will not succeed well planted on ordinary sod, with
impervious subsoil. Plant thrifty two-year-old trees, from four to six
feet high, well branched. Cultivate as long as the tree lives; use
turning plow in spring, and follow with harrow every week during summer
until orchard comes into bearing; then get some tool that will stir the
ground two to three inches deep, and cultivate often. Cultivation pays
better than fertilizer or anything else. He grows small fruit among the
trees, but believes corn the best crop up to eight or nine years; then
grows nothing. Does not think windbreaks essential, and would have none
on the east or north; would not object to windbreak of Russian mulberry,
or other hardy trees, on south and west. For rabbits, he wraps the
trees, and keeps two good beagle hounds. Does not prune, except to keep
watersprouts off, and cuts out limbs that cross. Thinks the wind thins
the fruit sufficiently. Believes the best apples are self-pollenizers,
and need no other varieties near, and that it does not pay to grow
others. Never use any fertilizer. If orchard "runs out," would have
another ready to take its place. Allows no stock in orchard. Is not
troubled with insects. Has sprayed a little for tent-caterpillar. He
digs out borers with a knife. His best market has been at home, selling
by the bushel or wagon-load to farmers who do not grow any. Believes
thorough cultivation better than irrigation. Prevailing prices,
thirty-five to seventy-five cents per bushel. Uses male help, at one
dollar per day without board.
* * * * *
S. H. DOMONEY, Aurora, Cloud county: Have been in Kansas ten years. Have
an orchard of ---- trees, planted from twelve to fourteen years, of Ben
Davis, Winesap and Missouri Pippin for market, and Red June, Duchess of
Oldenburg, Cooper's Early White and Kansas Keeper for family use. I
prefer limestone soil with gravelly subsoil, in the bottom, with north
slope, if possible. Prefer trees two years old with low heads. "I like a
tree with a tap-root." Plow deeply and plant in loose soil, thirty feet
apart each way. I grow potatoes and sweet corn for six or seven years,
after which I sow orchard-grass. The best tool for cultivating is a disc
harrow. Growing no crop in the orchard. I think windbreaks are
essential, and prefer Russian mulberry, three rows, planted six by eight
feet apart. I like the mulberry best because they come into leaf early
and hold their foliage late. I prune a little, to thin out and let the
sun in. I believe it would pay to thin fruit on the trees. I use stable
litter, and fertilizer from the hog-pen, and think it pays if not put
too close to the tree. I tried pasturing with hogs, but don't think it
advisable, as they destroy the trees to get apples. I spray some with
London purple after the bloom falls, to destroy canker-worm and
codling-moth, and think I have reduced the latter by such spraying. I
dig borers out. We pick by hand, and sort into very best, second best,
and culls. I sell at retail and to the grocers in Concordia, Kan. I make
some cider, and feed culls to the hogs; never dried any; winter some in
barrels and boxes, and find Ben Davis and Missouri Pippin the best
keepers. I do not irrigate. Use no hired help. Prices have ranged from
fifty cents in summer to eighty cents in winter.
* * * * *
H. L. FERRIS, Osage City, Osage county: A citizen of Kansas for
twenty-one years. Have an orchard of 4000 apple trees--200 twenty years,
1800 seventeen years, 2000 sixteen years planted. Prefer, for commercial
purposes, Ben Davis, Winesap, and Missouri Pippin; for family orchard:
Winesap, Missouri Pippin, Jonathan, Romanite, and Maiden Blush; have
discarded Rawle's Janet. Prefer good upland corn ground, with sand or
gravel subsoil, north and east slope. I plow deep, and plant large
two-year-old trees, shallow, and mound up; shorten roots and branches.
Cultivate with plow and harrow from youth to old age. Grow corn in young
orchard up to six years, afterward nothing. Prefer a windbreak on south,
west, and north, of box-elders, Osage orange, or peach. Rub liver on
trees to repel rabbits, and use a knife for borers. To prune with a
little saw makes the trees grow faster, and the apples grow larger, and
it pays. Use stable and barn-yard litter to fertilize with, and it
pays. Would not allow live stock to run in orchard. Am troubled with
roundheaded borers and codling-moth. Spray in May and June for bitter
rot and fungous diseases. Fight borers with a five-eighths chisel, a
wire, and coal-tar. Pick from step-ladders into tin pails hung to branch
with wire hook; haul in boxes on spring wagon to packing place. Sort on
tables into three grades--first, second, and cider apples; pack into
eleven- or twelve-peck barrels. Sell in all ways; have sold in orchard.
Ship the best; best market in Texas. Send six-inch apples to where they
are scarce; culls I sell cheaply at home, evaporate some, and make
vinegar. Use a Zimmerman evaporator and Eureka parers. Sell dried fruit
at retail, have shipped some; do not think it pays, do not find a ready
market. Store for winter use in boxes in cellar successfully; find
Romanite and Winesap keep best; lose about one-fourth. Have irrigated
some from a pond with an eight-inch hose and steam-power pump. Average
price has been fifty cents per bushel for apples and five cents a pound
for dried apples. Use male help gathering, and female help at dryer,
paying eight to ten cents per hour.
* * * * *
A. OBERNDORF, Centralia, Nemaha county: Have lived in Kansas nineteen
years. Have an apple orchard of 4200 trees, from three to twenty years
planted. I am told Ben Davis and Gano are the best apples for commercial
purposes; for family use I would prefer Early Harvest, Red Astrachan,
Duchess of Oldenburg, Maiden's Blush, Ben Davis, Winesap, and Rawle's
Janet. I prefer hilltop with northern slope. I prefer one-year-old,
switch-like trees, set 16x30 feet. I plant young orchards to corn, using
double-shovel and diamond plow, and harrow; plant the bearing orchard to
clover and cease cropping at five years. For rabbits I use paint during
summer and wrap during winter. I also use paint for borers. I prune with
shears and knife to secure an open center; do not think it beneficial.
Never thin apples. I fertilize with barn-yard litter; it seems to
benefit the trees and prolong their fruitfulness. Do not pasture my
orchard. My old trees are affected with flathead borer and leaf-roller.
The codling-moth trouble my apples. I sprayed three seasons; saw no
benefit, so quit. I pick by hand, in a basket. I sort into three
classes: First class, for market; second class, for immediate sale, and
small ones, for cider. I usually sell at the nearest market. Best market
is at home. Never dry any. I store for winter markets in cellar, in
barrels, boxes, and in bulk, and am successful; find that the Winesap
and Rawle's Janet keep best. We have to repack stored apples before
marketing; sometimes lose more than at other times. Do not irrigate.
Price has been fifty cents per bushel. I hire help at one dollar per
day, or twenty dollars per month and board.
* * * * *
P. M. HOWARD, Clyde, Cloud county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-six
years; have an apple orchard of 450 trees. For market purposes I prefer
Ben Davis, Winesap, Missouri Pippin, Rawle's Janet, and Jonathan; and
for family orchard Ben Davis, Winesap, Early Harvest, Maiden's Blush,
Jonathan, and Wealthy. Would prefer a deep loam soil, clay subsoil, if
not too close to the top, and almost level. I prefer two-year-old,
low-head trees with no forks, planted in furrows. I cultivate my orchard
to corn planted east and west as long as I can, using the plow and
cultivator shallow; and cease cropping when the trees so shade the crop
that there is no profit; I grow clover or weeds in a bearing orchard,
and mow and leave on the ground for a mulch. Windbreaks are essential; I
would make them of Osage orange planted in rows 2x4 or 2x6 feet. For
rabbits I wrap the trees with corn-stalks, and for borers I mulch and
keep the trees growing. I prune my trees when planted; I think it
beneficial. I never thin the fruit on the trees. I fertilize my orchard
with anything of a coarse nature that is not easily disturbed; I would
advise its use on all soils, unless very rich, deep clay soil; in such
soil perhaps clean cultivation would be all that is necessary. I would
add that my observations and experiences have taught me that the people
of Kansas have lost millions of dollars from and through lack of knowing
what we should have known. I think that the State Horticultural Society
is doing a great and good work with _limited_ appropriations. I have
never seen any one yet who read the reports from the horticultural
department but what was in full sympathy with your labors, but wondered
why more reports were not sent out. I think our legislators should be
more wise; consequently, more liberal in their appropriations for the
work and distribution of the same, not only to the farmers, but to
people in towns and cities; their needs are in proportion as great as
the farmers'.
As to the fruit business: On the southeast quarter of section 26,
township 4, range 1, is one of the _best_ orchards I know of in Republic
county (not the largest). It consists of about 450 apple trees, also
peaches, cherries, pears, and grapes. Myself, little girls and wife
planted it. I wish to tell you how every one of the different fruits
have abundantly paid for labor and all cost, and left their owners a
fair profit. The soil of this successful orchard is a black loam, upland
prairie, clay subsoil; loam eighteen inches to two feet deep, previously
cultivated in corn and potatoes, plowed, not listed. Lay of land: Two
slight ridges; a wide draw; slope east and west. Trees more vigorous and
bear as well in draw as on upland. Varieties: Ben Davis, Missouri
Pippin, Jonathan, Winesap, Rawle's Janet, Maiden's Blush, mostly the
first four. Planting: Distance, thirty by thirty feet, furrowed out with
a fourteen-inch plow, running two furrows across each way. Cleaned out
all loose dirt to make room for all roots to spread without turning up.
The little girls held the trees, tops leaning to the southwest about
five degrees. I covered the roots well, tramped firmly, and filled with
loose earth. Leave furrows so as to hold water on upper side of tree.
After all trees were out I gave each one a slight mulch of sorghum
refuse. Cultivation: Crop always corn; rows running east and west. Rows
far enough from trees so horses or singletrees would not touch them.
Cultivate shallow, with one horse, and light plow with very short
singletree. Pruned some. All limbs where cut off were painted. Cut close
and smooth; wounds healed readily. Tried to prune so that air and sun
would go through and not against the trees. Pinch off all water or
tender sprouts.
To protect from rabbits and borers I stand corn-stalks running clear up
to branches around body; tie at top and bottom; keep trees low, a little
heavier on southwest side. I believe with thorough cultivation and stalk
protection we would hear of less borers. All mulch was kept away from
bodies of trees. I believe it all nonsense not to prune, but it should
be done while they are young. My observation has been all my life that a
well-balanced tree is longer lived, has more bushels of fruit, of better
quality, smoother limbs and trunks. So I would say if you do not intend
to protect the bodies of your young trees and prune do not buy or plant
them; it does not do to sow oats, wheat, rye, millet or any grain crops
in your orchard. It is an easy way to keep weeds down and a sure way to
kill your orchard. It does not pay to pasture even with calves; chickens
are at all times beneficial; hogs after your orchard has matured so the
trees can resist the hog, when he rubs against them, which the hog is
sure to do, and perhaps he will pull some of the lower limbs. I have
never sprayed, but firmly believe it profitable. Next year I expect to
plant out a new orchard and cultivate along the line of the one I have
told about, with such help as I can get from the horticultural
department.
* * * * *
D. S. HAINES, Edwardsville, Wyandotte county: Has been in Kansas
twenty-six years; has 3000 apple trees from two to twenty-five years
old. Commercial varieties, Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Jonathan, and
Willow Twig; and for family use, Early Harvest, Red Astrachan, Maiden's
Blush, Jonathan, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Rawle's Janet, Celestia, and
Winesap. Has tried and discarded Bellflower, Pennock, Baldwin, McAfee's
Nonesuch and others for barrenness. Best location, hilltop, sandy loam
with clay subsoil--any slope will do. Plants either in fall or spring,
two-year-old thrifty trees, fifteen by thirty feet apart, a little
deeper than they stood in the nursery. Grows corn, potatoes, cabbage,
etc., well cultivated, among the trees, but not to crowd them, for five
or six years. Uses a spading harrow where no crop is grown. After six
years sows to clover. Needs no windbreaks in his section. Traps and
shoots rabbits. Takes borers out with knife. Prunes very little; cuts
out dead or broken limbs, as they are no good, and take up room. Never
has thinned apples on the trees, but believes it would be all right.
Sees no difference in fruitfulness if trees are in blocks of a kind or
mixed up. Would use barn-yard litter, but not close to the trees;
believes in it on all soils. Does not pasture, and thinks it would not
pay. Is troubled with borers, tent-caterpillars, leaf-rollers,
leaf-crumblers, and codling-moths. Never sprays. Picks in sacks. Packs
in orchard, in twelve-peck barrels well pressed. Uses table for sorting
(described elsewhere) and makes Nos. 1, 2 and 3 grades. Marks name of
variety and own name on barrel head. Sells his best in car lots at
wholesale, the culls to peddlers. Generally markets at Kansas City. Has
tried distant markets and made it pay. Never dried any. Stores for
winter in barrels in cold store; not always satisfactory; thinks the
cold-storage business not yet fully understood; says Ben Davis and
Jonathan keep best. Sometimes repacks, at a loss of one-tenth to
one-sixth. Does not irrigate. Prices have ranged from two to five
dollars per barrel. Paid last year one dollar per day to men who could
do a good day's work.
* * * * *
E. M. GRAY, Perry, Jefferson county: I have lived in Kansas forty years;
my orchard of twenty acres has been planted twenty years. For market, I
prefer Ben Davis and Jonathan on poor land; and Missouri Pippin and
Winesap on rich land. For family orchard, Early Harvest, Red June,
Winesap, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Missouri Pippin, and Huntsman's
Favorite. Have tried and discarded Grimes's Golden Pippin, Lawver,
Winesap, Missouri Pippin, and Huntsman's Favorite; they are not
profitable, are too small when grown on poor land. I prefer yellow clay
bottom, with an east, south or northern aspect. I prefer large, healthy,
two-year-old trees, planted with a lister, subsoil plow, and spade. I
cultivate my orchard to corn, small fruit, potatoes and nursery stock
seven years, with a cutaway disc harrow, and cease cropping after eight
years; I plant nothing in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential;
would make them of Russian mulberry, Osage orange, or cedars, by
planting two rows of them on the south and west sides of the orchard.
For rabbits I keep a shot-gun and dogs. I do not prune; don't think it
beneficial. I do not thin my apples while on the tree, but think it
would pay. My trees are in mixed plantings; my Ben Davis are fuller and
redder planted close by Jonathan and Winesap. I do not fertilize my
orchard, but think it would be beneficial, and would advise its use on
all exhausted soils in old orchards. Do not pasture my orchard; would
not advise it, don't think it would pay. My trees are troubled with
flathead borers, and my apples with curculio. I do not spray. I dig
borers out with a knife.
Pick my apples by hand; have light-weight men climb the trees and pick
in meal sacks, then lay on tables. Sort into two classes: First,
perfect, well colored, smooth, and good size; second, wormy, fair, and
small size. Pack in three-bushel barrels, well rounded up; mark the
variety of apples on the barrel with a stencil; haul to market on a
hay-frame wagon. I sell in the orchard, wholesale, retail, and peddle;
sell the best to highest bidder; sell the culls to driers or ship South
or West. My best markets are where apples are scarcest. Do not dry any;
it does not pay. Don't store any; I have to repack stored apples before
marketing, losing about one-twelfth of them. Do not irrigate. Prices
have been from $2 to $2.75 per barrel; dried apples, five cents per
pound. I employ men at seventy-five cents per day. Apple-growing in
Kansas, on high prairie land, is not very profitable to the grower,
unless he has a good windbreak on south and west sides of his orchard.
In 1880 I planted twenty acres of apples trees of many varieties; Ben
Davis and Jonathan were the only ones that paid me on high land. In 1895
I planted thirty acres to apples; fifteen acres on upland and fifteen
acres on second bottom, sloping east and north. On the upland I put
nothing but Ben Davis and Jonathan; on the bottom I planted Ben Davis,
Missouri Pippin, Mammoth Black Twig, Gano, Winesap, and
Jonathan--cross-fertilizing the Ben Davis every fifth row with the
Mammoth Black Twig, Jonathan, and Winesap. I believe that
cross-fertilization is beneficial to an orchard in making fruit more
plentiful, larger, smoother, better color and quality. It is believed by
many that Ben Davis, Jonathan and Winesap are self-fertilizers, and
don't require crossing; that being the case, they should have the cross
near by, in order to not decrease the species or run it out. Professor
Darwin says self-fertilization is abhorrent to nature, and the same rule
that applies to small fruits is equally applicable to apples. Why not?
Fruits and premium awards are my best advertisers. I have succeeded in
carrying off most of the awards in every show I exhibited at, and have
premiums on file to show for some. All my fruits are set for
cross-fertilization, and I shall continue to set that way. Many have
said and will say they see no difference; perhaps they are not close
observers, and have given the subject little study. I have given the
subject twenty-five years' study and experience, and think I am not
mistaken. I think there is more money to be made on our high upland in
pears, small fruits, and stone fruits. They pay me better than apples.
The Grimes's Golden Pippin would be a good apple to grow if the trees
did not die after two or three crops. The Lawver apples fail to hang on
the trees. The Missouri Pippin will not stand up on our high land unless
surrounded by windbreaks; they look here like a Kansas cyclone had
passed through them--the limbs all blew off last fall. Winesaps fall off
badly, and are affected with bitter rot. For trial purposes, I recommend
Mammoth Black Twig, Gano, and York Imperial.
* * * * *
Dr. J. STAYMAN, Leavenworth, Leavenworth county: We came to Kansas
thirty-nine years ago, and traveling over the eastern portion of the
state selected Leavenworth as the most desirable point to commence tree
and fruit-growing. We were then engaged in that business in Illinois,
and had collected over 1000 varieties of apples, which we brought to
Kansas; among them were nearly all the leading varieties then grown and
many new and rare kinds of local reputation. Our object in making this
collection was to grow them side by side, under the same conditions, to
ascertain their value. In 1860 we set an orchard of a few hundred trees,
consisting of about seventy varieties, two years old. Among them were
Ben Davis, Winesap, York Imperial, Willow Twig, Rambo, Rawle's Janet,
White Pippin, and Jonathan, and the leading apples generally grown,
including summer and fall varieties. At the same time we set out about
1000 root grafts in a nursery. We then collected over 1000 more [scions]
and top-grafted them [into standard trees], to get the fruit sooner.
Over 1000 of these were received from the late Charles Downing. From
this collection, and from specimens of fruit received, we have been able
to accurately describe over 2200 varieties, with an outline cut of each,
with seeds and core and all other characteristics. And to ascertain what
effect climate had upon each variety, we kept an accurate meteorological
record of the weather. This we furnished to the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D. C., for ten years. We also grew the leading varieties on
an elevation 400 feet higher, and on various aspects not over two miles
apart, and learned what effect elevation and aspect had upon the bearing
quality of different varieties.
For commercial orchard I prefer Stayman, Winesap, York Imperial,
Jonathan, and White Pippin. It will be noticed that in the commercial
list we omitted Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Gano, and Willow Twig. These
varieties are all productive and profitable, but we believe the time has
come (or soon will be) that the public will demand something better, and
to meet this demand we have made the change; but to those who do not
believe in progress the above varieties will prove at least productive,
if not so profitable as in the past. In making out the list of apples we
have hesitated somewhat in heading the list with Stayman, not from any
doubt about the apple, but from the fact that it is not generally known;
but this objection can be made against any apple when first introduced.
The following is the description we gave twenty-one years ago in our
fruit notes: "Fruit large, heavy, form oblate conic, regular; color
greenish yellow; mostly covered, splashed and striped with dark red;
flesh yellow, firm, fine, tender, juicy, rich, mild, aromatic, subacid;
quality good to best; season January to May. Seedling of Winesap; bore
the ninth year from the seed." After fruiting this apple over twenty
years we can add the following: It is a strong grower, has a darker
leaf, is a better bearer, hangs on the tree better, is of larger size,
is of much better quality, and will keep better than Winesap. Charles
Downing gave a similar description of this apple in his appendix.
[Stayman Winesap.] R. J. Black, of Ohio, one of the best-posted
pomologists, who has fruited it for years, puts it at the head of both
the commercial and family lists, and says: "It has all the qualities of
the Winesap without any of its faults." Prof. H. E. Van Deman, who has
fruited it and seen it fruited in Delaware, puts it at the head of the
list, and writes in respect to the change of name: "Stayman (apple) is
worth almost a lifetime to produce." "Now, I have been so impressed with
its coming value and popularity, that I have thought it ought to be
shortened in name to _Stayman_." J. W. Kerr, of Delaware, says: "It is
superior to its parent, the Winesap, in size, color, flavor, and keeping
quality. The tree is more vigorous in growth. After several years'
fruiting, I have no hesitation in saying it is the finest all-round
winter apple that has come under my notice." Professor Heiges writes us
about the same in substance. Prof G. H. Powell, of the Delaware
Experiment Station, says: "In quality it equals the Northern Spy, and is
in season from October to May." We could give many quotations of equal
value from _Rural New Yorker_, _Green's Fruit Grower_, and _National
Stockman and Farmer_.
Since writing the above we find the following in the last-named paper of
May 26: "One variety, Stayman, mentioned frequently in these columns, a
seedling raised by our correspondent, Dr. J. Stayman, of Kansas, from
the old Winesap, receives special commendation. It is remarkable that,
in the wide section of country between Kansas and Delaware, in Ohio,
Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Missouri, wherever this variety has been
tried, it has developed the same excellences of size, quality, and
keeping, as well as of vigor and productiveness. Lovers of choice apples
will not fail to make a note of this." Winesap we place second on the
list, after a fair trial of over thirty-five years side by side with Ben
Davis. Give it good soil and high cultivation and but few apples will
excel it. York Imperial we place third. It is not of the highest
quality, but it is better than Ben Davis, and will keep in a common
cellar, and command a high price. It is very productive in alternate
years, and a hardy tree. Although we introduced this apple into the
state thirty-eight years ago, yet its commercial value is scarcely
known. Jonathan, perhaps, should stand at the head of the list for its
great beauty, fine quality, and productiveness; but it matures so early,
drops so badly, keeps so poorly, and requires so much care in handling,
that we hesitate doing so. It is, however, a very profitable apple when
well handled, and cannot be omitted, as no other in its season equals
it. White Pippin: This apple of unknown origin and seldom mentioned
should be better known, as it is far superior to the famous Newtown or
Albemarle Pippin of the same type. We have had it in bearing on high and
low land as long as any other apple, and find it very productive in
alternate years, of the best quality, and bringing the best price. It
keeps better, drops less, is of larger size, equal in quality, and will
bring as high a price, where known, as the Jonathan. In a commercial
orchard there should be few, if any, fall or summer varieties, unless
favorably located; they should be of the best shipping and market
varieties, as Early Ripe, Duchess of Oldenburg, Orange Pippin, Cooper's
Early White, Jefferis, Muster, and Dr. Watson. These are all early
bearers, very productive and salable, and of fine quality for table or
kitchen. Those best for a family orchard are Stayman, Winesap, Jonathan,
White Pippin, Mason's Orange, Summer Extra, Garretson's Early, Summer
Pearmain, Early Joe, Jefferis, Early Ripe, Duchess of Oldenburg, Dr.
Watson, Muster, and Wagener; and for sweet apples there are none better
than Broadwell, Ramsdell, Superb, Baltzby, and Mountaineer.
All these apples are early bearers, productive, and fine for family use,
and we cannot well discard any; but eight or ten trees, of summer and
fall varieties together, are enough to supply the largest family. It is
better, however, to plant one of each variety, that we may have a
succession of fruit throughout the season; also, if one variety should
fail, others might not. It would require a very long list to name all we
have tried and discarded, but we will name some: Rawle's Janet we
reject, as it runs too small and cracks badly; Ben Davis, Missouri
Pippin, Willow Twig, Gano, Arkansas Black and Mammoth Black Twig are all
productive, but of poor quality; Maiden's Blush, Lowell, Porter, Rome
Beauty, Western Beauty, Fulton, Trenton Early, Cole's Quince, and many
others, because they ripen too irregularly and drop too badly. The White
Winter Pearmain, Lawver, McAfee and Kansas Keeper blight badly and are
not sure bearers; Early Harvest and Red Astrachan are not hardy; Summer
Rose, Early Strawberry and Benoni are fine, but too small; Primate,
Chenango and Gulley of Pennsylvania are too tender to handle; Smith's
Cider, Hay's Wine, Fallawater, Scott's Best and Nonpareil Russet are
productive, but ripen early and are not profitable. Many Southern winter
varieties are too small, such as Haley, Gully, Kittageskee, and Harris.
Few if any Eastern winter apples are of any value here, as Northern Spy,
Baldwin, Canada Red, Swaar, Sutton Beauty and Melon all ripen too early,
and become poor, dry, fall apples. It is the same with all Northern
apples, from whatever source or locality. It is a mistake to think we
can find a winter apple adapted to Kansas that originated north of
Kansas, under a lower mean temperature. This we have fully demonstrated
beyond the possibility of a doubt.
Early apples require a specific amount of heat to bring them to maturity
from the time the fruit forms. If brought from a colder climate to a
warmer one, you hasten its growth and accelerate its maturity just in
proportion to the difference in mean temperature of the two localities,
and consequently it ripens in the fall here. I prefer hilltop for
quality, keeping, and color, and bottom for size. Hilltop and steep
bluffs are the best for all kinds of winter apples, as they produce the
richest fruit, with the finest color, and they keep the best and are not
so subject to injurious pests. Fifty feet of abrupt elevation is equal
in its effect to fifty miles of latitude south on frosty nights. It
retards spring growth as much as forty miles north. An elevation of 400
feet makes a difference of from ten to twenty-five per cent. in the
amount of saccharine matter in fruit, to which rich quality, fine flavor
and aroma are due. Bottom land produces the largest apples, more murky
in color and more irregular in bearing. Rolling, intermediate Kansas
land will prove satisfactory. East and south slopes hasten the maturity
of fruit, and are the best for early varieties; a northern slope retards
the ripening of fruit and is the best for winter apples. The best
specimens of apples we ever saw in Kansas grew on a northern bench about
thirty feet below the top of an elevation of 400 feet, on good, rich,
well-drained soil. They were large in size, clear in color, and perfect
in form. We prefer any good soil that will produce a good corn crop,
with a well-drained clay subsoil; mucky, wet or hard-pan soils are not
fit for fruit. Land that produces a good crop of wheat is rich enough.
We have seen a very heavy crop of York Imperial at its native home on
quite thin freestone land. Almost any of the land in Leavenworth county
is naturally rich enough if we only keep it so.
I prefer two-year-old untrimmed trees, set in furrows made with a
two-horse plow, no deeper than we plant the trees, but wide enough to
take in the roots. We set them about two inches deeper than they stood
in the nursery, on the solid subsoil, and pack the dirt firmly amongst
the roots; lean or set the heaviest top to the southwest. The largest
and heaviest roots, if convenient, should be in the same direction.
After filling the hole, bank up a steep mound of earth around the tree.
If this is properly done no ordinary wind will ever move it. We prefer
two-year-old or strong one-year-old trees, because they can be set more
rapidly, cost less labor, less money, live better, and grow more stocky.
We want them taken up with care, give no pruning whatever, neither "cut
their tops in to balance the roots," when planting in orchard. Trees
that are taken up when young and set out in an open orchard without
pruning grow stronger and more stocky, bear sooner, and are less subject
to blight, sun-scald, and the attack of flathead and roundhead borers.
We have root-grafted as many as 500,000 in one season on sections of
roots from two to six inches long with scions from three to twenty
inches long, to see which were the best. Two-inch sections from one-year
roots, grafted with scions about six inches long, set deep enough to
form roots on the stock, are best. This "whole-root graft" is simply a
_humbug_. It is the strength and vigor of seedling roots, not the length
of them, that make the best-rooted trees. No sensible man will pretend
to graft whole seedlings [roots] and set them out in a nursery. It
cannot be done with success. We must cut off a portion of the root to do
it. The question arises, how much? It is then not a whole root, and it
becomes a question what length of root is best. It is not advisable to
bud or graft seedling trees in the nursery, for all seedlings are not of
the same vigor and hardiness; consequently the trees would differ
similarly.
I plant my orchard to corn, potatoes, garden-truck, and small fruits,
and keep this up, with clean cultivation, using a Planet jr. horse hoe,
until they begin to bear, and cease cropping after ten years, planting
nothing unless the above-mentioned crops or clover in a bearing orchard.
Windbreaks are injurious unless planted at least 200 feet from the
orchard. The best protection is to plant the two outer rows of
fruit-trees close together; they can be cut out, if desired, when they
become too thick. This is better than high-growing shelter trees or
evergreens. We want a free circulation of air to pass among the trees. A
high and heavy protection produces an eddy which blights and sun-scalds
the trees, as well as hastens the ripening and dropping of apples. We
have had no occasion to use any protection from rabbits and borers since
we quit pruning off the lower limbs. Pruning is not thoroughly
understood. Trees are pruned to make them live, grow fast and stocky,
and also slender; to make them bear young, give form, light and air, and
to make them look alike; to bear heavy crops and fine specimens. It is
claimed all this can be done by pruning; it can be accomplished without
pruning in a much shorter time and without extra labor. We do not
recommend pruning apple trees at any times excepting _after_ the trees
are well established in the orchard; then the lower limbs _may_ be
gradually removed to form the head, about two feet from the ground; but
the longer we allow them to remain the heavier and stockier they become;
for the body of the tree increases in size just in proportion to the
amount of foliage on the lower limbs. We prune off dead, broken and
sucker limbs, and have no objections to taking off limbs that chafe each
other (if this should happen from neglect). We have lost more trees from
pruning than from all other causes together. We have seen large orchards
just in their prime that have been so injured from pruning that they
never recovered. On the other hand, I have seen orchards that were so
neglected, dilapidated and crowded that I thought a thorough pruning
would make them more productive. I never thin the fruit on the trees; it
is not necessary.
Pollination is no doubt an important factor in productiveness, size,
quality, and form. We have had no opportunity to test the result with
apples, as our varieties are all mixed up together. We would not plant
in an orchard large blocks of any variety excessively; better have them
intermixed with other varieties that bloom at the same time. The pollen
of one variety may be congenial to some, while it may be neglected
[repelled] by another; we will have to learn this by experience, or
plant a less number of varieties together. We have little experience yet
in planting large orchards of few kinds. Perhaps none of these varieties
that are esteemed so highly are congenial to each other. We had better
go slow about planting out 10,000 to 20,000 of one kind together. We may
have gone too far now. We do not use any fertilizer for our trees only
as we crop the land. The virgin soil of our county does not need
fertilizing if planted in orchard until the tree comes into bearing,
except we crop the land. It is, however, a mistake to think we can grow
an orchard and crop the ground at the same time, without any injury to
the orchard, unless we restore the lost fertility in some way. Orchards
so exhaust the soil in about sixteen years' cropping that it is worth
little afterwards. "It is estimated that an acre of apples in good
bearing removes annually about forty-nine pounds of nitrogen,
thirty-eight pounds of phosphoric acid, and seventy-two pounds of
potash. If the fertility and productiveness of the orchard is to be kept
up, these fertilizing elements must be returned in some form." At the
market value of these fertilizing materials, it amounts annually to
about twelve dollars an acre. It is estimated that an orchard will be in
full bearing in about ten years. Then in six years of full bearing it
will have exhausted the soil to the amount of seventy-two dollars per
acre. Take in consideration the previous cropping of ten years, need we
wonder what is the matter with our orchard? Should we diminish the feed
of a vigorous horse annually for ten years, do you think he could pull
the same load, or be of much value? The nitrogen is the most expensive
element, representing about half of the whole, yet it can be restored to
the soil by crimson or red clover, peas, vetches, beans, cow-peas, or
turnips, which have the ability of converting the free nitrogen of the
air into available plant food. The best method of accomplishing this end
is to grow these crops on the land and plow them under in their green
state at about maturity. I do not pasture my orchard; it is not
advisable and does not pay. My apples are troubled with codling-moth. I
do not spray. For borers, I bank the trees, so that if they deposit
their eggs they can be gotten out easily.
I pick my apples in baskets and sacks from a ladder, and sort them into
three classes: first, second, and culls. I pack in baskets and barrels;
press them in barrels, and mark with name of variety. I wholesale my
apples in the orchard to dealers; market the best in baskets and
barrels, sell my second and third grades the best way I can, and throw
the culls away. My best market is at home. I never tried distant
markets, and do not dry any. I am successful in storing apples for
winter in boxes and barrels in a cellar, and find Ben Davis, Stayman,
Willow Twig and York Imperial keep best. In storing apples for winter,
they should be picked before they are too ripe and when the weather is
not too hot; when picked they should be taken at once to shade and
packed and stored away in the cool of the evening. They should be well
sorted, packed in tight barrels, and headed up to exclude the light and
air. They will keep longer if each apple is wrapped with paper. The
temperature of your cave or cellar should be reduced as much as possible
by throwing the doors open at night and closing them through the day. A
gradual reduction and a regular temperature is better than a sudden
change. Apples should not be hauled about in the hot sun before storing
them away, neither should they be placed in cold storage at once. The
change is too sudden. It is the same in taking them out of cold storage.
It should not be done at once. A storing room for this purpose should be
provided in every cold-storage plant. I do not have to repack stored
apples if they are sold early, but if not until late we have to repack.
The loss depends upon the variety. I have tried irrigation on a small
scale, but do not irrigate now. Prices have been from fifty cents to two
dollars per barrel. I employ men that are capable of packing apples,
paying from five to ten cents per hour. We seldom hear anything about
fall planting, as if it was a settled fact that the spring was the best
or the only time it could be done successfully.
All of our trees for the last thirty-eight years have been transplanted
in the fall, excepting the last three years they were set out in the
spring. The difference is decidedly in favor of fall planting; they
start in growth earlier and make a much stronger growth the first
season, and there is a gain of nearly a year in size over those planted
in the spring, and they certainly have lived better. Why should they not
do better? We have more time and less hurry to do the work well, the
ground is in better condition, the trees have more time to callus and
become firmly established. It is often too wet to take the trees up and
transplant them early, and late setting is not advisable. The distance
trees should be set apart is a more important matter than is generally
supposed. Very few ever think how large a tree will grow and the space
it will occupy. Almost every thrifty variety will grow and spread, and
require a foot of space each year; that would be ten feet in ten years
and forty feet in forty years; in other words, the trees will meet in
forty years if set forty feet apart. This holds good in Kansas;
consequently, forty feet apart is too close to plant trees if we expect
an orchard to last that long. Apple trees will bear and be profitable
for that length of time if they have sufficient space, receive proper
care and cultivation, and the fertility of the soil is not allowed to
become exhausted. Many set their trees 16x32 feet for the purpose of
getting a large crop when the trees first come into bearing, with the
intention of cutting out every other row when they crowd, but we fear
very few if any ever think this will have to be done in fifteen years
from the setting or the orchard would be ruined and the land very much
impoverished. It would be much better and more profitable to set the
trees 24x24 feet and cut every other row out in twenty-four years, at
least one way, and if they crowded, both ways, and not crop the land at
all, except to keep up the fertility of the soil. By this method we
could have a good bearing orchard for forty years or longer, which would
pay better than closer planting and cropping the land to pay the
expenses.
* * * * *
DAVID BROWN, Richmond, Franklin county: Have lived in Kansas thirty-four
years; have an orchard of 2000 trees, averaging twenty years planted,
composed entirely of Ben Davis, Jonathan, and Winesap; have discarded
everything else. I would plant on nothing but deep upland soil, planting
good yearling trees. I grow no crop in the orchard, and cultivate
thoroughly always with plow and harrow. I have quit pruning, as it kills
the trees. Never pasture the orchard. I spray with London purple for the
canker-worm and codling-moth. Borers I cut out. I always sell at
wholesale to shippers at about eighty cents per barrel. Never dry any or
store any for winter.
* * * * *
FRANCIS GOBLE, Leavenworth, Leavenworth county: Have been in Kansas over
forty-three years. I have 13,000 apple trees, ranging in age from last
spring's setting to forty years. For commercial purposes I use Ben
Davis, Winesap, Jonathan, Missouri Pippin, Ingram, Maiden's Blush,
Grimes's Golden Pippin, and Smith's Cider. For family use I would advise
Jonathan, Winesap, Early Harvest, Rambo, and Milam. I have tried and
discarded numerous varieties. I prefer medium to high land, with a clay
and loam soil on a subsoil of clay and sand; any slope is better than
southwest. I have planted trees of all ages, and all look well. I plant
thirty-two feet east and west and sixteen feet north and south. I
believe in thorough cultivation with plow, harrow, etc., as long as the
orchard lives. Sometimes the orchard requires a certain kind of
cultivation, at other times a different cultivation. In a young orchard
I usually grow corn, potatoes, wheat, melons, or pumpkins. In a bearing
orchard I usually grow nothing, though sometimes I take a crop of millet
or pumpkins from the ground. I cease cropping entirely at from five to
seven years. Windbreaks are not necessary here; they make their own
windbreak if kept thoroughly cultivated and full of life. Thorough
protection will largely prevent borers; if any are found in the tree I
remove them with a knife and wire. For rabbits I wrap with paper or
other material.
I prune with a saw to keep down surplus wood growth and improve the
quality of the apples. It is beneficial if carefully done, a little
every spring and not much at once. I believe thinning will pay when the
trees are abnormally full. Remove as nearly as possible all defective
fruit when half grown, and what is left will be of higher grade in size,
color, and quality. I believe a decomposed stable fertilizer is
necessary on some soils. Better not pasture with any stock whatever; I
do not think it advisable; I think the profit (?) would be an expensive
one. Am troubled somewhat with canker-worm, bud moth, borers,
leaf-rollers, codling-moth, curculio, and gouger. I sprayed one year for
insects generally with London purple through the spring season, and do
not think it was a success. I pick about as Judge Wellhouse does, and
sort into three classes; the best we make firsts, the best half of the
balance we call seconds, and the balance are simply culls. We pack in
barrels and haul to market with wagons provided with racks holding
sixteen barrels each. I sell my best apples at wholesale, but have never
sold them in the orchard; the second grade I sell to groceries and
peddlers; the culls I sell to anybody, usually in the orchard. I have
never tried distant markets. I never dry any. I store for winter in a
cold store built for the purpose on my own farm, which has been
described in the paper. I have also tried artificial cold storage, and
the Jonathans kept well. [See Cold Store.]
* * * * *
E. P. DIEHL, Olathe, Johnson county: I have lived in Kansas thirty
years; have an apple orchard of 700 trees, twenty inches in diameter,
twenty-nine years old. For market I prefer York Imperial, Jonathan,
Winesap, and Ben Davis, and for family orchard Early Harvest, Maiden's
Blush, Winesap, and York Imperial. Have tried and discarded Bellflower,
Dominie, Pennsylvania Red Streak, and White Winter Pearmain. I prefer
hilltop with a mulatto limestone soil, northeast aspect. Would plant
two-year-old trees, forty feet apart. I plant my orchard to corn and
potatoes for five years, using a cultivator; cease cropping after six
years; plant nothing in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; I
would make them of trees, planted on the south, west, and north. I prune
with a knife and saw; think it beneficial. I thin the fruit on my trees
the latter part of May, and think it pays. My trees are in mixed
plantings. I fertilize my orchard; think it beneficial and that it pays.
Pasture my orchard very little, late in the fall, with horses; think it
advisable and that it pays. My trees are troubled with canker-worm,
tent-caterpillar, bud moth, root aphis, bagworm, flathead borer,
roundhead borer, woolly aphis, twig-borer, and oyster-shell bark-louse;
and my apples with codling-moth. I spray with London purple, using a
force-pump, and think I have reduced the codling-moth. Those insects not
affected by spraying I dig out with knife and wire. I hand-pick my
apples from a step-ladder into a sack with a hoop in the mouth. Sort
into three classes: first, second, and third; pack by hand in
three-bushel barrel, mark with stencil, and ship by rail. I sell my
apples in the orchard, wholesale and retail. Sell my best ones to apple
dealers. Sell my second- and third-grade apples at the stores; make
vinegar of the culls. I have dried apples with an American dryer with
satisfaction; after dry, pack in barrels; we find a ready market for
them and think it pays. I store apples for winter in bulk in a cave and
am successful; I find York Imperial and Rawle's Janet keep best. We have
to repack stored apples before marketing, losing about twenty per cent.
of them. I do not irrigate. I get six cents per pound for dried apples.
I employ men at $1.25 per day.
In the growing of apples in Kansas many things are to be well
considered. That injunction of Davy Crockett's must be kept constantly
in view to be successful: "Be sure you're right, then go ahead." First,
to select varieties that are well adapted to your soil; next, location;
last but not least, the preparation of the soil and future care. Many of
the varieties that are well adapted to the Eastern states are
unprofitable here. Another great mistake is the planting of too many
varieties. When I first came to this state thirty years ago, I consulted
Col. A. S. Johnson, now of Topeka. From him I obtained a great deal of
valuable information, he having had thirty-six years of Kansas
experience. I should, no doubt, have planted many that I did not, owing
to the information obtained of him; so it may be seen that, by proper
care, experience, and observation, we may be of benefit to the rising
generation. Having selected your varieties by consulting the published
fruit list of the Kansas State Horticultural Society, next select your
location. Select, if you can, the highest northern slope; next east,
next west. Put your ground in good order by plowing and subsoiling at
least fifteen inches deep. Should there be any tenacious soil or spouty
places, tile with four-inch tile, forty feet apart, three feet deep. A
great mistake is made by many in planting too closely. I have trees
twenty-eight years old, forty feet from tip to tip. Plant to some
cultivated crop for six years, then seed to clover; trim your trees each
February; keep the borers out, and if they do get into your trees hunt
them out; spray your trees frequently at the proper time to prevent the
noxious insects from getting the start of you, and when your trees
commence to bear commence to fertilize by turning under clover and
stable litter. Horace Greeley once said: "You might as well expect milk
from a cow tied to a stake as apples from an orchard uncared for."
* * * * *
A. MUNGER, Hollis, Cloud county: I have lived in Kansas fifteen years;
have an apple orchard of seventy-five trees twelve inches in diameter,
eighteen feet high, seventeen years old. I prefer for market Ben Davis,
Missouri Pippin, and, to a limited extent, Yellow Transparent and
Grimes's Golden Pippin, and for a family orchard add Early Harvest and
Maiden's Blush. Have tried and discarded the Willow Twig on account of
blight and rot. I prefer bottom land, with a loose subsoil, and young
and stocky trees. I plant my orchard to potatoes, beans and vines for
ten years, and use a cultivator that keeps three inches very mellow, and
cease cropping when impossible to cultivate. I grow weeds in the orchard
and mow them. Windbreaks are not essential, but are very desirable;
would make them of Osage orange, Russian mulberries, or box-elder. Set
the first row four feet apart, the second six inches, and never trim;
the third six feet. For rabbits I use traps and gun. I hunt the borers
and encourage the birds. I prune my trees so as to give air and
sunshine; think it pays. Do not thin the fruit while on the trees. My
apples are in mixed plantings. I fertilize my orchard in the winter with
stable litter fresh from the stable; it appears to do good, and would
advise its use, with judgment, on all soils. I pasture my orchard with
hogs and calves. I do not think it advisable among young trees. My trees
are troubled with leaf-roller, and my fruit with codling-moth. I spray
just after the blossom falls, with Paris green, for the codling-moth.
Prices have been from 25 cents to $1 per bushel. What the future of
apple-growing in northern central Kansas may be, it is of course
impossible to tell, but from the success of the few orchards that have
been planted, and after being planted have received some attention
besides that bestowed by calves and pigs, it would seem well worth a
trial. There are years when the best attention possible cannot prevent
damage and some loss from drought, especially on upland. For this reason
bottom land would seem more suitable for an orchard in this county, even
though subject to some disadvantages. In some orchards on low land only
a few feet above the water-level, where a sandy subsoil admits of a free
natural subirrigation, the thrift and productiveness of the trees have
been unusually good. Cold seems to be dreaded less than hot, dry weather
in the latter part of the summer, although late spring frosts sometimes
do damage. Even the traditional "north slope" might have its advantages
somewhat balanced in this county by the valley lands that retain a large
amount of moisture.
A good soil with a loose subsoil that holds the greatest possible amount
of water are the most important requirements as to location. If the
cultivation is then such as to save the water of early summer rains to
the best advantage until the dry weather of the late summer comes, it
will be drawn upon, and some very dry seasons may be tided over without
much loss. Plowing in the spring and very frequent shallow cultivation
afterwards are, as yet, the best known means to this end; and as a
general rule they are sufficient to answer every purpose as far west as
central Kansas, without artificial watering, as the average rainfall
shows; but if the early rains are allowed to go to waste by falling on
the hard ground and running directly off, or by rapid evaporation from
an undisturbed surface, where capillary force is rapidly carrying back
to the surface what has already soaked in, we invite ultimate failure
when the drought comes. Cultivate once a week, or after each rain, when
they come oftener than that, with something that will keep two or three
inches of very fine, mellow earth on the surface, and will cause an
amount of water to be retained in the soil below the earth mulch that
will surprise any one who has never tried it. An ordinary harrow will do
very well, or better a five-tooth cultivator, behind which I fasten a
2x4 scantling with large wire nails driven through it, about two inches
apart, weighted on the back edge to keep it right side up; the scantling
is cut as long as the width of the cultivator. At one operation the
cultivator and this harrow leave the ground about like a hand-rake
would, marked only by the footprints of the driver. Last summer this was
used several times where young peach trees had been set out, going
around each row and sometimes over the entire ground. There was no time
during the summer that the trees stopped growing or showed signs of
needing more moisture than they had. Nine hundred and ninety-four lived,
the horses killed two, and the borers two more. Fifteen years ago I
bought a small farm having on it a small family orchard of seventy-two
apple trees. It included several varieties, from summer to winter sorts.
The trees were 28x28 feet apart, with peach trees alternating both ways,
making three times as many peaches as apples in the orchard. The land
was cultivated until the trees were ten years old, then sowed to timothy
and clover. The timothy soon died out; but the clover lived for a few
years, but is gone now. It happened that some of the years that it was
not cultivated were some of the driest during the fifteen, and several
trees died of blight. Would this have happened if the cultivation had
been continued? I have gone to plowing and cultivating again, anyway,
with no crop in the orchard. The trees are now fifteen or twenty feet
high, and about twelve inches in diameter at the ground. The peach trees
have mostly been cut out. Cannot see that they did any harm, unless it
might have been harder on the apple trees during the dry season; but if
it was, the peaches were worth about as much as the apples, and the
trees make a quick, bushy growth, thus forming a shelter for the apple
trees, which now stand straight and are well balanced. We have had a
peach crop about half of the years. Potatoes, beans and vine crops were
raised in the orchard the first few years. It was surrounded by a
windbreak of cottonwood and box-elder trees, several rows, seven feet
apart each way. This is certainly very beneficial; but Russian
mulberries grow as well, make a thicker top, and at the same time invite
birds to keep up their quarters there and make their homes with us, "a
consummation devoutly to be wished." Osage orange, planted the same as
for a hedge and never cut back, will make a better windbreak than
cottonwood or box-elder, and a fence at the same time.
This orchard has borne variable crops, some good, some light, but always
fruits. It is on bottom land sloping very slightly to the southeast;
soil a sandy loam with a clay subsoil. It has been pruned considerably,
but not very much at a time. One man in this county who succeeds well
with apples never prunes, except to keep the center open to sun and air.
Another near him gave his orchard a severe trimming a few years ago, and
had no fruit, but some dead trees for two or three years afterward. In
planting, the ground should be well plowed, then mark off one way with a
plow or lister. Twice to the row with the lister, with three or four
horses, and the subsoiler well down, will make a very good preparation
for small trees without much digging, and small trees are best for
several reasons: they are cheaper, less work to set out, and more likely
to live. Set stakes to go by, and, in planting, cross the furrows. We
have just finished setting 2000 peach trees in this way, and very little
digging was needed. Then cultivate well and often. Rub off shoots that
start where limbs are not wanted, and start an evenly balanced top of
four or five limbs. A year after the trees are set out, if any of them
are leaning much, dig away the dirt on the side from which they lean,
and set them up straight, tramping the dirt well on the opposite side.
With winter will come the rabbits, and they will girdle the trees if not
prevented. Many and varied are the sure cures for them, but none are
perfect. A wash of ordinary whitewash and a pint of sulphur to the
bucketful, applied with a brush or swab to the bodies of the trees,
generally stops their work, but if the rain washes it off it must be put
on again or they will resume operations. A little coal-oil added to the
whitewash prevents the rain from having so much effect on it; make it
thin, so it will not scale off so badly. Two applications have been
enough for our young trees the past winter. We also use traps which are
very similar to the Wellhouse traps, described in the Kansas State
Horticultural Report for 1897. Tarred paper, corn-stalks, veneering,
screen wire, cloth tied around the trees, or a woven-wire fence around
the entire orchard, are all among the practical means used to fence
against rabbits; but don't try the plan of one of my neighbors, unless
you have too many trees; he applied coal-tar; it kept the rabbits off,
and his orchard is now a treeless corn-field.
During winter we haul manure direct from the stable and spread under the
trees (not against them) out as far as the ends of the limbs. On good
ground I would not do much of this until the trees get to bearing, as it
would interfere somewhat with cultivation and would not be needed, but
when a good annual crop is taken from the orchard something must be
returned, or the supply is going to run out. On thin land rotten manure
applied when the trees are small will do them good. Pasturing an orchard
at any time is of doubtful expediency; it is safer not to. I have
sprayed but once. That was done just after the blossoms fell, and again
ten days later. There were fewer wormy apples than usual. That was last
year. Think I will try it further.
For a home orchard Early Harvest, Yellow Transparent, Maiden's Blush,
Grimes's Golden Pippin, Winesap, Missouri Pippin and Ben Davis do well
here and keep up a supply from first to last. For commercial planting
Ben Davis is perhaps best here as elsewhere. Missouri Pippin does well;
Winesap bears enormously, but is too small, and gets smaller as the
trees get older. There is a good local demand here for Grimes's Golden
Pippin and a few of any very early variety. Willow Twig has been
worthless on account of blight and rot. Encourage birds by every means,
and never let one, or a nest, be disturbed, unless it is that
belligerent little alien, the English sparrow. They are at war with all
the feathered tribe, even with their own relations, and should be
exterminated. Don't begrudge birds a few feeds of cherries and berries,
when they work for nothing and board themselves nearly all the year.
* * * * *
A. H. BUCKMAN, Topeka, Shawnee county: I have lived in Kansas
twenty-eight years; have an apple-orchard of 1000 trees two to
twenty-six years old. For market I prefer Maiden's Blush, Jonathan,
Winesap, Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, and Huntsman's Favorite; and for a
family orchard White Juneating (the earliest apple known), Red June,
Early Ripe, Duchess of Oldenburg, Sweet June, Fulton Strawberry,
Cooper's Early White, Smokehouse, Maiden's Blush, Grimes's Golden
Pippin, Jonathan, Winesap, Rawle's Janet, Ben Davis, Ramsdell Sweet,
Roman Stem, and Red Romanite. I have tried and discarded King, on
account of rot, falls early, water core, short-lived; Kansas Keeper, on
account of blight, poor tree; Yellow Bellflower, on account of being a
shy bearer and rot; Willow Twig, on account of blight; Lansingburg, on
account of blight when the tree is young; R. I. Greening, on account of
its falling early, and rot. Baldwin, falls early and rots. Lawver, no
good on my soil. McAfee's Nonsuch, poor bearer. Rambo, not acclimated.
Northern Spy, rots. Pryor's Red, ripens unevenly, and is affected with
scab. Dominie, there are many better of its season. Esopus Spitzenburg,
rots badly. Rome Beauty, good some seasons. Ohio Nonpareil, poor bearer,
falls before ripe. Lowell, blights while trees are young. Winter Swaar,
rots before perfectly ripe. Autumn Swaar, good of its season, and should
have a place in the family orchard. York Imperial, poor quality; rots
too bad for commercial purposes. American Summer Pearmain, shy bearer
while young. White Winter Pearmain, is affected with scab and is no
good. Red Winter Pearmain, falls off early; the tree is poor.
Gilliflowers, black and red, rot badly. Pennsylvania Red Streak,
affected with scab; very good some seasons; trees die early. Sweet
Bough, trees die early. Bentley Sweet, keeps all right, moderate bearer;
tree appears to be tender. Clayton, rots and is no good. Calvert is a
poor bearer and rots with me. Pound Pippin, no value. Iowa Blush, no
value, small. Red Vandervere, no value; rots. Vandervere Pippin,
moderate bearer and rots. Pennock Summer, good market in its season.
Pennock, fairly good; we have plenty better. Early Harvest is affected
with scab some seasons. Early Ripe is better and larger and to be
preferred. Smith's Cider, blight, poor tree. Red Astrachan, poor bearer.
Roxbury Russet, all russets fail with me. Jefferis, quality fine, but
will not bear. Ortley, good, but is inclined to rot.
I prefer hilltop having a drift soil, but the subsoil is of more
importance than the surface soil. I prefer a north or northeast aspect.
I prefer two-year-old, medium-sized trees, clear of root aphis, set in a
dead furrow, with peach trees between north and south. I cultivate my
trees six years after planting, with a plow and five-tooth one-horse
cultivator. Plant the young orchard to corn; cease cropping after six or
seven years, and then seed down to clover. Windbreaks are essential;
would make them by planting one to six rows of Osage orange, red cedar
or catalpas all around the orchard. The boys hunt the rabbits with
shot-guns. I wash the trees with a carbolic-acid wash for borers. I
prune with a knife and saw to balance the top, keep down watersprouts,
and to get rid of useless wood. I think it pays and is beneficial, as it
shades the body of the tree and keeps off the flathead borers. I do not
thin the fruit. Can see no difference whether trees are in blocks of one
variety, or mixed plantings. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter
all over the ground, and wood ashes around the trees, but do not believe
it pays, and would not advise it on all soils; any soil that is suitable
for an orchard will not need enriching until after it ceases to be
profitable. I pasture my orchard with hogs and calves; I think it
advisable under certain conditions, and find it pays. My trees are
troubled with root aphis, roundhead borers and buffalo tree-crickets;
and my apples with codling-moth. I do not spray. I pick my apples by
hand, from a ladder, into a sack with a strap over the shoulder. I sell
the bulk of my apples in the orchard, from piles, at wholesale and
retail; sell the grocers and fruit dealers what are left of my best
apples. Make cider of the second and third grades of apples. Feed the
culls to the hogs. My best market is in Topeka. Never tried distant
markets. Do not dry any. I store some apples for winter in bulk, in
boxes and in barrels in a cellar. I have to repack stored apples before
marketing. Apples have been about forty cents a bushel in the orchard
for the last ten years.
* * * * *