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
Am troubled only with root aphis, codling-moth, and curculio. I spray
right after the blossoms fall with London purple, for codling-moth, and
have reduced them to a great extent. Have prevented borers by wrapping.
I contemplate using kerosene emulsion on curculio and insects that I
cannot reach with poison. I pick in canvas lined half-bushel baskets,
and sort into firsts, seconds, and culls, carefully, by hand. I pack in
boxes, if I can get them; have used barrels well shaken and pressed
down, marked with stencil, and shipped by rail. Denver has been our best
market thus far; sometimes I have sold most of my apples in the orchard;
never have to peddle any. I feed the culls to my hogs. Never dry any,
but think I will try it in the near future, as there is a good home
market for a large part of them. Have stored a good many in cellar in
barrels and in bulk; some I have buried. I don't like either plan, and
am figuring to put up some kind of cold-storage building for future use.
Winesap, Missouri Pippin, and Ben Davis, in the order named, have kept
best for me, my losses being about one-fifth. I irrigate by flooding the
ground all over thoroughly when necessary. Prices have ranged from 75
cents to $1.25 per bushel; from $2.50 to $3 per barrel. I use the best
men I can get, and pay $1 a day and board, or $1.50 per day without
board.
* * * * *
A. W. SWITZER, Hutchinson, Reno county: Have lived in Kansas twenty-six
years; have 2000 apple trees twelve, fifteen and eighteen years old.
Winesap, Missouri Pippin and Ben Davis for market purposes; Maiden's
Blush, Rambo and Roman Stem added for family use. Have discarded Limber
Twig and Willow Twig, both subject to blight. I prefer bottom land,
sandy loam soil, and sandy subsoil; north slope is best. Plant
two-year-old, low-headed trees, in holes large enough to receive all the
roots without crowding, one inch deeper than in the nursery. Plant to
corn until five or six years of age; then nothing. Plow and cultivate
both ways to kill the weeds. I believe windbreaks are a necessity, and
should be made of trees planted two or three rods wide, four feet apart,
on the south side. Wrap the trees with straw or hay to protect from
rabbits and borers. I prune with a saw to thin out where too thick, and
to keep down the watersprouts; it certainly pays. I use stable litter
and old hay in the orchard for fertilizer. Do not think it pays or is
advisable to pasture orchard. I spray when the bloom begins to fall,
three times for codling-moth, with London purple and Paris green, and I
am satisfied I have reduced them. For the borer I use a knife and a
wire. I pick in baskets, and pile in long rows in the orchard. I sort
into two classes, and sell the best in the orchard to men who haul them
west. The culls go for cider. I do not irrigate, and I do not dry or
store any apples. Prices have varied from twenty-five cents to one
dollar per bushel. I use common farm labor at fifteen to eighteen
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