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
WILLIAM BURDEN, Leeds, Chautauqua county: Have been in Kansas twenty-one
years. Have 400 apple trees from eight to twenty years old. I prefer for
commercial orchards Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, and Winesap, and for
family orchard Early Harvest, Maiden's Blush, and Jonathan. Have tried
and discarded Willow Twig, Rawle's Janet, and Russet. I prefer limestone
bottom land, with north slope. I plant twenty-eight by thirty feet,
using two-year-old trees. I cultivate eight years with plow and
cultivator. I grow corn among young trees, clover in a bearing orchard,
and cease cropping after eight years. Need no windbreaks. Wrap trees
with corn-stalks to keep off rabbits. I prune to keep down watersprouts
and limbs from rubbing; I think it beneficial. Never thin the fruit on
the trees. Have not tried mixed plantings of trees. I do not fertilize.
I pasture my orchard with horses, but do not think it advisable. My
trees are troubled with root aphis, roundhead borer and leaf-roller. Do
not spray. I pick fruit by hand. I sell mostly to farmers living farther
west; sometimes sell in the orchard and sometimes retail. Make vinegar
of culls. Never tried distant markets; never dry any. Store some apples
in cave in boxes; am successful; find that Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin
and Winesap keep best. Do not irrigate. Prevailing price, thirty cents
per bushel; five cents per pound for dried apples.
* * * * *
EBERT SIMON, Welda, Anderson county: Have lived in Kansas thirty-one
years; have 300 apple trees, fifteen inches in diameter, twenty years
old. I prefer for commercial orchard Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin,
Winesap, and Gano; and for family orchard Winesap, Missouri Pippin, and
Jonathan. I prefer hilltop, with black loam and porous subsoil, with
north slope. I plant three-year-old whole-root grafts. I cultivate in
corn for five years with one-horse cultivator; seed a bearing orchard to
clover. Windbreaks are essential on the south. I prune with the saw to
let the sun in, and think it beneficial. Never have thinned apples. I
sometimes use stable litter as a fertilizer, but would not advise its
use on all soils. Sometimes I pasture my orchard with hogs and horses,
and think it advisable. I hand-pick my apples. I sell in the orchard,
peddle the second and third grades, make vinegar of culls, and feed some
to hogs; never tried distant markets. Never dry any. Prices have been
from $1 to $1.50 per barrel.
A SUMMARY OF THE FOREGOING DISTRICT REPORTS.
Ben Davis is the leading market apple, followed closely by Missouri
Pippin. These two lead all others, and are followed by Winesap and
Jonathan. Rawle's Janet, York Imperial, Huntsman's Favorite, Grimes's
Golden Pippin and Maiden's Blush are also favorites. We find the Yellow
Bellflower, Newtown Pippin, Lawver and a few others are condemned all
over the state.
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