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
In picking I use foot ladders and one-half-bushel baskets, unless the
variety is very hard; then I use sacks. Sort into three classes. Pack in
barrels shaken and pressed down, then headed, and marked with name of
variety, and haul to shipping point on wagon. Sell some apples in the
orchard; let the grocer have the best to sell on commission; sell second
and third grades the best way I can; make cider of culls. My best market
is at Abilene; never tried distant markets. Dry only for home use. Am
successful in storing apples in barrels and tight boxes, in a cave; find
Winesap and Rawle's Janet keep well till June. Put my apples in the cave
when the weather is cold, and keep it open cold nights, but am careful
to not let it freeze. Think it best to repack stored apples when kept
late. If they are well managed you will not lose five per cent.,
probably not two per cent. Do not irrigate, but would if I had water
facilities. Prices last fall were from forty to fifty cents per bushel
in the orchard, but the apples I kept over netted me $1.25 to $1.35 per
bushel. I employ men and women; think women best and cheapest for
sorting. Pay fifty, sixty and seventy-five cents per day.
I do not consider myself a successful horticulturist, but believe, if I
had known as much about the nature or necessity of the orchard when we
came to Kansas nineteen years ago as I do now, I could have made a
success of it, even here in central Kansas. I would especially say that
I do not believe there can be success with an orchard exposed on upland.
There might possibly be some success as a family orchard, with a good
windbreak planted around it, especially on the south side, but I would
not take ten, twenty or thirty acres of exposed upland, with apple trees
enough to plant it, as a gift, if I must plant and tend it, for the
produce of it for ten or more years. I do not know of a single such
orchard that is worth having. I would advise selecting low ground,
sloping north and east, with an elevation or good timber protection on
south and west; land inclining to bottom or good "draw." My belief is
that, with a good selection of varieties, and the proper kind of land
and location, apple-raising could be made quite profitable here. Keeping
the apples in cellars is a mistake; a good cave kept as cold as possible
without freezing is far better. I think apples should be placed on the
north side of some shed or building before being put in the cave, and
kept cool, and put into cave before freezing. Last fall I sold my choice
apples at the orchard at from forty to fifty cents per bushel. I kept
some in barrels in the cave. They were in good demand later. About the
holidays I got $1.25, and since then $1.35. I had a contract with a
grocer to sell them for fifteen per cent., and they netted me as above.
I have some in very fine condition in my cave yet [April 27]. I still
open the cave on cold nights.
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