The Apple: The Kansas Apple, the Big Red Apple; the Luscious, Red-Cheeked First Love of the Farmer's Boy; the Healthful, Hearty Heart of the Darling Dumpling. What It Is; How to Grow It; Its Commercial and Economic Importance; How to Utilize It.
Science
The Apple: The Kansas Apple, the Big Red Apple; the Luscious, Red-Cheeked First Love of the Farmer's Boy; the Healthful, Hearty Heart of the Darling Dumpling. What It Is; How to Grow It; Its Commercial and Economic Importance; How to Utilize It.
Apples
A. D. ARNOLD, Longford, Clay county: Have lived in Kansas twenty years.
Have 300 apple trees, sixteen years planted, from ten to fifteen inches
in diameter. Grow only Ben Davis, Winesap, and Missouri Pippin for all
purposes. I prefer bottom land in this locality, sandy loam with a
northern aspect. Plant two-year, stocky trees, with a low top. I
cultivate with the plow and disc, and grow no crop in the orchard. I
believe a windbreak of box-elder or evergreens is beneficial but not
essential. I prune very little, using my knife with judgment. I use
stable litter as a mulch, and think it pays. I never pasture my orchard.
Have few insects but codling-moth. I shade the body of the tree to keep
borers out, and dig them out if any get in. I use ladders, and pick into
baskets, and sort into two classes--perfect and imperfect. My trees have
never borne a full crop, only enough for home use and the neighbors. We
have had several dry seasons, causing the fruit to fall badly.
* * * * *
J. S. GAYLORD, Muscotah, Atchison county: Have lived in Kansas
twenty-six years; have 5000 apple trees, planted from one to twelve
years. For market I prefer Missouri Pippin, Ben Davis, Winesap, and York
Imperial, and for family would add Yellow Transparent, Cooper's Early
White, Maiden's Blush, Grimes's Golden Pippin, Jonathan, Rawle's Janet,
and Little Romanite. I prefer hilltop with eastern slope, and would
plant only two-year-old trees. I have grown both seedlings for stock and
root grafts, in the nursery. I believe in thorough cultivation with
two-horse cultivator and double-shovel plow, using a five-tooth
cultivator near the trees. I crop with corn from seven to nine years,
and then sow to clover. I do not think windbreaks essential. For rabbits
and to prevent borers I use equal parts of carbolic acid and water as a
wash. I prune a little by cutting back on the north side and keeping out
the watersprouts, which I think pays. I think it pays to thin apples by
hand in July and August. I have used some stable litter in the orchard,
and think it pays. I pasture horses in my orchard during winter, but no
stock at any other time. I spray, after blossoms fall, three times, two
weeks apart, with Paris green, for the codling-moth, and my apples are
quite free from worms. I dig out borers and pick off worm nests. I pick
by hand in half-bushel baskets, sell at wholesale, and the buyer sorts
to suit himself. I have never dried or stored any. Prices in 1896 and
1897, seventy-five cents per barrel; spring of 1898, $1.25 to $1.65. I
use laborers at one dollar per day.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account