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
M. A. WILSON, Atwood, Rawlins county: I have resided in the state
nineteen years; have an apple orchard of fifty trees ten years old, six
inches in diameter. For all purposes I prefer Winesap and Ben Davis. I
prefer bottom land with a dark loam and a clay subsoil, with a northern
slope. I prefer two-year-old trees with good tops and stocky bodies, set
in early spring, sixteen to twenty feet apart. I plant my orchard to
corn, potatoes, and garden-truck, using a hoe and cultivator; have never
ceased cropping. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of Russian
mulberries planted twelve feet apart each way; trim and cultivate them.
For rabbits I wrap the trees with rags or burlap cut in strips three or
four inches wide; begin at the bottom and wind up; if the limbs are near
the ground, wrap them, too. I prune with a small keyhole saw and shears
to keep the tree hardy, and think it pays. I thin my apples when they
are about half grown; it pays. I fertilize my orchard with stable
litter; it has been beneficial, and would advise its use on all soils.
Do not pasture my orchard. Trees are troubled with tent-caterpillar and
flathead borer. I do not spray. I stand on a step-ladder and pick my
apples, laying them in the baskets as carefully as though they were
eggs. I sort into two classes--best, and second grade. I sell apples in
the orchard; retail the best, second and third grades; use and sell the
culls. Home is my best market. I do not dry or store any for winter
market. I irrigate, lifting the water twenty feet by an elevator and
horse power from creek. Prices have been from $1 to $1.60 per bushel.
Dried apples, sixteen pounds for one dollar. I employ hands at from
fifteen dollars to eighteen dollars per month.
* * * * *
F. T. M. DUTCHER, Phillipsburg, Phillips county: I have lived in Kansas
twenty-six years; have an apple orchard of 100 trees from eight to ten
years old. For market I prefer Missouri Pippin, Ben Davis, and Winesap,
and for family orchard Ben Davis and Winesap. I prefer a bottom which
has a sandy soil and a clay subsoil, with a northeast slope. I set
two-year-old trees in listed ditches. I plant my orchard to potatoes as
long as possible; use a five-tooth cultivator; cease cropping when the
trees shade the ground, and plant nothing in a bearing orchard.
Windbreaks are not essential. For rabbits I tie corn-stalks around the
tree, leaving them on the year round. I prune my trees with a knife;
think it beneficial, and that it pays. I thin apples, if necessary, as
soon as established. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter, and
would advise its use on all soils. I never pasture my orchard; do not
think it advisable. My trees are troubled with borers, and my apples
with curculio. I do not spray. I dig borers out. I make only one grade
of my apples, and feed the culls to pigs, and use all the rest at home.
I do not dry any. I irrigate a little; have a pond around the trees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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