Part 10

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.

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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.

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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.]

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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."

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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.