“ For market I prefer Winesap, Ben Davis, and Missouri Pippin; and for family orchard would add Jonathan and Maiden's Blush. I have tried and discarded Rome Beauty, Huntsman's Favorite, and Minkler. I do not like them. I have upland, with a poor soil and a gumbo subsoil, with a north and east aspect. I prefer two-year-old trees, set thirty feet apart each way. I cultivate my orchard with a stirring plow, and intend to keep it up as long as I live; plant corn or any cultivated crop in the young orchard, and cease when there is no room; plant nothing in the bearing orchard. ”

“ I prune in fall and winter with a saw, and my experience is that it makes better fruit. I have never thinned on the tree. Barn-yard litter scattered through the orchard improves the land. I pasture with hogs early in spring and late in fall; they eat the refuse apples. Am troubled with canker-worm, web-worm, and codling-moth. I spray with London purple and air-slaked lime just as soon as I see the insect, or as soon as the trees are in bloom. I think I have reduced the codling-moth. I pick in a sack tied and hung on the shoulder, using a ladder against the tree. ”

“ Borers do not trouble my trees when they have plenty of water. I hand-pick my apples; sort into three classes—first, second, and refuse. I sell some apples in the orchard, but retail most of them to the stores; make cider of the third grade and culls. My best market is at home. I do not dry any. I am successful in storing apples in bulk in a cellar; find the Missouri Pippin, Winesap and Arkansas Black keep best. I irrigate thoroughly in the winter, early spring, and again before the fruit begins to ripen. Prices have been from fifty cents to one dollar per bushel. ”

“ Any soil is good, either clay or loam. I would set thrifty two-year-old trees in furrows. I have raised thousands of root grafts in the nursery, growing my own seedlings to graft on. I cultivate in corn until they begin to show fruit, then in millet twice; I have never cultivated the orchard without a crop. When the ground gets bad, break it up and put in millet to shade the ground. I have never used any windbreaks; plant my trees close, to protect each other from the wind. I use axle grease for rabbits, and have had very little trouble with borers. ”

“ It bears abundantly with us, and its singular richness of color is heightened by an exquisite bloom on the surface of the fruit, like that of the plum. It is one of the handsomest dessert fruits, and its quality is good, but if not taken from the trees as soon as ripe it is liable to become mealy. Tree a vigorous grower, upright, spreading. ”

“ I believe that cross-fertilization is beneficial to an orchard in making fruit more plentiful, larger, smoother, better color and quality. It is believed by many that Ben Davis, Jonathan and Winesap are self-fertilizers, and don't require crossing; that being the case, they should have the cross near by, in order to not decrease the species or run it out. Professor Darwin says self-fertilization is abhorrent to nature, and the same rule that applies to small fruits is equally applicable to apples. ”

“ A vigorous-growing variety will do well on the thin soil of the hills, while a variety deficient in root vigor, which might be profitable in deep soil, would not thrive on the hilltops. I gathered this year from eight-year-old Missouri Pippin trees, planted in the deep soil of a creek bottom, five bushels of apples to the tree, while Missouri Pippins in the same orchard, on the hilltops, planted at the same time and having the same treatment, yielded scarcely a bushel to the tree. ”

“ I think there is more money to be made on our high upland in pears, small fruits, and stone fruits. They pay me better than apples. The Grimes's Golden Pippin would be a good apple to grow if the trees did not die after two or three crops. The Lawver apples fail to hang on the trees. The Missouri Pippin will not stand up on our high land unless surrounded by windbreaks; they look here like a Kansas cyclone had passed through them—the limbs all blew off last fall. Winesaps fall off badly, and are affected with bitter rot. ”

“ Our orchards should not be allowed to grow up in waste and neglect, neither should they be planted in those things which sap the life of the soil and leave nothing to sustain the tree. One of the main causes of non-productiveness of the apple orchard is land starvation. An orchard cannot produce fruit in addition to a crop of wheat, oats, rye, etc.; and so, if a man continues to take off crops of these every year, he simply does it at the expense of his trees. There are crops, however, which may be used with good effect, such as corn, peas, hay, potatoes, etc. ”

“ Marketing the crop is the last but not the least work of the apple-grower. In fact, when the orchard is well established, this is about the only work connected with the orchard. And in that respect the orchard has a decided advantage over other farm crops, that require yearly preparation of the soil, sowing, harrowing, cultivating, etc., as well as the harvesting of the crop. The early summer apples can usually be sold on the local market at fair prices; the later summer and fall can be shipped, and are usually in fair demand by Western buyers. ”

“ The subject of the ripening of fruits like the apple has been extensively studied, as has also that of the subsequent decay. According to recent researches, early varieties of apples contain little starch when picked, and do not keep well. The season, soil, and age of the tree affect the composition of the fruit. It has been shown that sugar is sure to be formed from the starch in the process of ripening, after the fruit is taken from the tree, and during the winter the cane sugar is gradually, and finally almost entirely, changed to directly-reducing sugar. ”