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
MIKE GAMER, Strong City, Chase county: Have lived in Kansas since
February 14, 1877. Have 180 apple trees from one to twenty years old.
For commercial orchard would prefer Maiden's Blush and Ben Davis. Have
tried and discarded Rambo and Pennock, because of rot. I prefer dry
bottom. I prefer trees four to six feet high, planted thirty feet apart.
I cultivate in corn for ten years, and seed a bearing orchard to grass.
I think windbreaks are essential; would make them of Osage orange or
trees, a row outside of the orchard. Am troubled with rabbits and
borers. I prune, and think it beneficial. I pasture my orchard with
pigs, and think it advisable. My trees are troubled with flathead borer,
and my fruit with codling-moth. I wash the trees with soap-suds for
insects. I sell my apples in the orchard; make cider of the culls. I
store apples in bulk in a cellar, and find the Romanite and Missouri
Pippin keep the best. Prices have been from twenty-five to sixty cents.
* * * * *
GEORGE SCHENCK, Le Roy, Coffey county: Have lived in Kansas eighteen
years, and have 1200 apple trees from ten to thirty years old. For
commercial purposes I prefer Ben Davis and Winesap. I prefer bottom
land. I cultivate my orchard to corn, using a lister and other tools; I
crop as long as it is possible to cultivate. Windbreaks are not
essential. I think fertilization with barn-yard litter beneficial on
upland orchard, but would not advise its use on rich bottom. I have
pastured my old orchard with calves and hogs.
* * * * *
C. F. PFLAGER, Elk, Chase county: I have lived in Kansas twenty-seven
years. Have 300 apple trees from one to twelve years old. For commercial
orchard I prefer Ben Davis, Willow Twig, Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and
Romanite; for family orchard, Maiden's Blush, Early Harvest, Yellow
Transparent, and Baldwin. I have tried and discarded Sweet Gennetting,
because of rot, and when ripe it is too small for market; Caswinculet,
because it sun-scalds and dries up, and Early White will not stand the
climate. I prefer bottom land, with sandy soil. I prefer two-year-old
trees, with low top, without forks, set four inches above the graft, at
an angle of thirty degrees south. Have grown some seedlings with good
success. I cultivate my orchard with potatoes and tobacco, using a plow
and cultivator, until four years old; I plant nothing in a bearing
orchard, and cease cropping when they commence to bear. Windbreaks are
essential here, and I would make them of Osage orange and forest-trees;
if Osage orange is used, plant it twenty feet from the orchard, or it
will injure the fruit-trees. I wrap my trees with corn-stalks or rags to
protect from rabbits, and wash the trees with lye water for borers; I
also dig them out. I have pruned with clippers, and found it injurious
to the trees; I only cut out watersprouts. I never thin my apples; they
thin themselves. My trees are in mixed plantings and bear well.
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